Code Matriks
by B1ockh3d
Summary: Two college students in America accidentally gain access to a Quantum Computer that runs a clone version of Lyoko, called Matriks, complete with its own unique virus. Meanwhile, Professor Tyron turns his super computer back on and stops Jeremie's virus. Meaning the Lyoko warriors must suit up, and join forces with the Matriks team, and stop XANA once and for all! Again! (Post CLE)
1. The Discovery

Code Matriks

Episode 1: The Discovery

By B1ockh3d

Author's Note: It has been too long. Not only from writing, but neglecting to write a fanfiction for my most favorite show ever! I hope there's someone out there that'll read this, and I'm not too late. I'm gonna aim for a new chapter every Monday, and if not every Monday, every other Monday! -B1ockh3d

_KNOCK! KNOCK!_

A young man knocked on the door of dorm room 313.

"Who is iiiit?" a scratchy voice answered.

"It's Remy. Look, I know you're sick, but the team needs the leg prototype you built." Remy requested.

"It's not done yet." The voice called back.

"We know, Chri-"

"Freshie, it's Cooke!" Cooke winced.

"Cooke," he emphasized, "We have statewide next week, we'll finish it today without you."

"Alright… I'll text Markus with the instructions…" Cooke reached over from his bed and unlatched the door, "It's in the case on my desk… Come and get it."

Remy came in, and saw Cooke covered by his blanket, surrounded by tissues, "Oh, man… do you need anything?"

"For you to get out of my dorm…" Cooke grouchily responded.

Remy grabbed the case off of Cooke's desk, and exited.

"Wait," Cooke reached out, "Tell Markus to grab some decongestants at the health center for me please…"

"Sure, will do." Remy promised.

* * *

A tall black man with curly hair and thick black rimmed glasses put his key into the door of room 313, and opened it.

"Hey man, I picked up your medicine." He threw the bag onto Cooke's bed.

"Thanks, Markus." Cooke uncovered himself, showing his pale white skin, wrecked ashy blond hair, and bloodshot eyes.

"Dude!" Markus gasped, "You're a wreck!"

"Thanks, captain obvious." Cooke sneered as he took a decongestant, "How's our team's robot coming along?"

"Excellent! We got your legs on it today, Sarah's finishing up the optic housing, and I have to finish the coding for the left arm, and we'll be good to go for next week."

"That's wonderful to hear." Cooke turned over.

"Hey," Markus sat down in a chair and wheeled over to Cooke, "We got visited by a government agent today."

"Not a suprise, they visit pretty regularly considering we go to Washington State University... In Washington."

"Yeah! But this guy was telling us about a new Congressional grant contest!" Markus pulled out a flyer, "Wanna hear what the winner gets?"

"Humor me."

"Winner gets ten thousand dollars AND a government lab space for a year!"

Cooke lifted his head, "Eh? You mean, we wouldn't have to sign up for time to use a communial lab?"

Markus smiled and nodded, "All to ourselves!"

Cooke sat up and grabbed the flyer from Markus, "How do we enter?"

"There's a showcase in about two weeks, we have to submit a video showing a working prototype of something amazing that we've made, and describe what we would do with the lab and grant, and hopefully get picked to come to the showcase."

"What were you thinking of submitting?"

Markus reached over to Cooke's desk, and picked up a small quadcopter, "This!"

"The mini-drone? C'mon, man."

"Not just the mini-drone, but the aluminum graphine super cell battery we're trying to produce that goes in it!" Markus pulled out the battery, "It almost works!"

"Yeah, except our current battery prototype only lasts five minutes, not two hours, like it's supposed to."

"But we have the research and math for it, we know it's possible!" Markus encouraged, "We just have to sell it!"

"Yeah, yeah... Yeah!" Cooke nodded, "When do we have to submit the video?"

Markus' smile turned into a frown, "Uh, in two days..."

Cooke buried his face into his pillow, "God, nooo... I look and feel like crap..."

Markus wheeled himself backward, "Yeah... What do we do? I really think we should enter."

Cooke let out a sigh, "...Write up a script, we're shooting the video tomorrow."

"What about you?"

Cooke reached for his phone, "I'm gonna text Sarah, ask for makeup help, and take some nyquil."

"Makeup?" Markus raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I ain't going on camera looking like this!" Cooke furiously shook his head.

* * *

They made a fantastic video, despite Cooke feeling like a wreck. It was submitted on time, and they waited anxiously for a reply. After a week, they went to their robot competition.

"Oh, no!" Markus cried out. The right arm of the robot popped off in the arena while holding the pool ball, which was the last one they needed to get into a tube and they would've gone to the semi-finals. But, it was too late. They couldn't pick up the ball with the other arm, because the detached arm was still holding it. They lost.

"Dangit!" Cooke yelled.

Sarah looked over, dejected, "Sorry guys..."

"No, don't feel bad," Markus reasssured, "We win as a team, we lose as a team. What happened was all of our faults."

The challenege ended, and the teams went out and retrieved their robots.

"WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY...DID NOT FINISH." The announcer boomed over the PA system.

Cooke looked over the robot, and its detached arm. "It... Looks like the sprocket screw came loose. Probably from the arm movement, rotating the screw."

"It's a darn shame." Markus replied.

Cooke nodded, "Welp, let's pack up our tools and go home."

* * *

Cooke and Markus flung their backpacks on their beds, and sat down.

"Well... That was a night." Markus broke the silence.

"Yeah..." Cooke sighed, "I can't believe I forgot to check the sprocket screws!"

"Don't beat yourself up over it, man." Markus soothed, "There's more competitions coming up. This is one of many."

Cooke shrugged, "It just really sucks. I felt like a rookie today."

"You're a sophmore, you're still technically a rookie." Markus teased, "Here, I know what'll make you feel better."

"Oh?"

"We got a letter in the mail today." Markus held up the envelope, "From the grant contest."

Cooke's eyes widened, "Open it!"

Markus grabbed a scrap metal shiv from his desk and used it as a letter opener, "Ahem, Dear Mr. Edwards and Mr. Cooke-"

"We regret to inform you..." Cooke pessimistically added.

"Uh, no." Markus' eyes widened, "Congratulations! Your innovative idea has been selected amongst 25 finalists for our _Young Innovators Showcase_, a showcase of 25 groups of future innovators in top colleges across the nation-"

"Blah blah blah THIS IS GREAT NEWS OH MY GOD!" Cooke sprang, "Even while fighting a cold we did it!"

"Yeah!" Markus thrusted the letter in the air, "We have a week to get ready!"

"Then lets not waste time!" Cooke pulled himself over to his desk, "I'll get to work on the infographics!"

"I'll finalize our proposal and make it pretty!" Markus booted up his computer.

The two worked throughout the night, finally falling asleep at 3 a.m.

Needless to say, the week ahead of them was a long and ruthless one.

* * *

Markus got into the drivers seat of his SUV, and Cooke got into the passengers seat.

Cooke inhaled deeply through his nose, and exhaled, "Ahhh... You smell that? That's the smell of our lives about to change forever."

"No," Markus shook his head, "That's the smell of the air freshener hanging from my rearview mirror."

"Smells like success to me!" Cooke strided.

Markus ignored Cooke's lame joke and put the car into drive, and began their two hour drive to the showcase.

* * *

They set up their station between a group that brought a robotic lizard that walked on water, and a group that brought a handheld water desalinator.

The competition was brutal. We all had five minute presentations in front of a review board, and we were up seventeenth.

A well dressed lady with bushy gray hair and round glasses came up to us, and looked at our project.

"Hello, ma'am. Are you enjoying the showcase?" Markus started. The lady looked up and smiled.

"Yes, quite." she answered in a very defined French accent, "I'm Suzanne Hertz, science teacher at Kadic Academy in France."

Markus and Cooke shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Mademoiselle Hertz."

"You have an extraordinary innovation, this... Super cell battery. What can it be applied too?"

"Well!" Cooke began, "For tonight, we have a mini quadcopter. In theory, a battery this size should last up to two hours. But, if we take a laptop battery, we can decrease the size of the battery while maintaining the same battery life, or we can make a battery the same size and increase the battery life by almost ten times."

"Meaning?"

"Laptops that could last up to a week, no joke." Cooke nodded.

"Impressive."

"Oh, it gets better," Markus added, "Unlike most lithium ion batteries that take hours to charge, these aluminum celled batteries can charge fully in minutes, depending on the size of the battery."

"Very impressive!" she complimented, "Is it okay if I take pictures of your project?"

Markus and Cooke looked at each other awkwardly, "Uhm... We like you, and we trust you-"

"But we don't know your students." Markus shrugged, "It's currently not patented, there's several companies trying to come up with a battery like ours, and we're keeping our notes under lock and key until it's patented."

"Oh!" she shook her head, "My apologies! I understand you want to protect your invention. I merely wish to take a picture of the battery, and your infograpic on graphine, as I'd like to use them in a lesson."

Cooke and Markus thought about it, and Markus whispered to Cooke, "It's your idea, your choice."

Cooke turned to Ms. Hertz, "I don't see any issue with that."

"Thank you." she thanked, and took a few pictures, including us two in front of our project. "I'd love it if you could come teach a class on super conductors and super capacitors."

Markus bit his lower lip, "Maybe one day!"

She smiled, "Do take care."

* * *

After the afternoon of presentations, it was time to announce the winners.

"After careful review of all the presenters, we have come down with our final results." the MC began, "Our third place five thousand dollar winner is Gracie and George from BYU Idaho and their handheld water desalinater!"

A boy and a girl went up on stage, and shook hands with the MC.

"Our second place ten thousand dollar winner is Markus and Chri- uh... Chris, from Washington State University and their super cell battery!"

Cooke winced at his first name being called, but he was overjoyed to have won! Markus and Cooke approached the stage.

"We only got second though..." Cooke complained.

Markus nudged him, "Ten grand is ten grand, man."

They shook the MC's hand, and got in line with the other group.

"And the winner of ten thousand dollars and a lab space for a year, is Samuel and Evan from Georgia Institute of Technology and their deep diving miniature submarine." The MC announce, "Give all the winners a hearty round of applause!"

Everyone started clapping while the winners came up, but one of them looked a little squirrelly, and incredibly nervous. More so than any competitor they've seen here.

"Congratulations to all of the competitors here today, and keep on creating!"

* * *

"Well, it sucks we didn't win first." Markus sat down at their table with a plate of food.

"Yeah..." Cooke trailed, "...Did you notice one of the winners was acting suspiciously? Like, he was hiding something?"

"No." Markus shook his head, "You're probably imagining that, because you're jealous we didn't get the lab."

"Maybe." Cooke took a bite of chicken, "But, then again, like you said, ten grand is ten grand."

"Attention," the MC took the stage, "We have an important announcement to make."

Cooke and Markus put their food down.

"The winning team has rejected the prize, and withdrew their entree on the base of plagiarism."

Markus looked over at Cooke.

"This is about to get cliché, I just know it." Cooke dumbfoundedly looked at the stage.

"Our new winner is Markus and Chris, from Washington State University and their super cell battery!"

"How about that?" Cooke commented, as everyone applauded, "I was right!"

* * *

A well suited female government agent with neck-length curly brunette hair waited outside a small warehouse about half a mile away from their school to greet Markus and Cooke, "Welcome to your new lab, and congratulations. I'm Agent Juliet with the FBI."

"It's a pleasure." Markus smiled.

The door swung open, A well suited female government agent turned on the lights, to a room filled with overturned furniture and papers everywhere.

"This is your lab!" she displayed.

Markus and Cooke looked around in disbelief, "...This place looks like it's been ransacked."

"What was this place used for originally?" Markus asked.

Agent Juliet flipped through some papers on her clipboard, "It looks like... Declassified document storage."

"So, all the papers here are safe to look at?" Markus checked. She nodded.

"We have all the documents that were here in our databanks. You may dispose of them however you see fit." she informed.

Cooke leaned over to Markus' ear and whispered, "That's code for "this mess is our problem.""

"I know!" he whispered back through his teeth.

She flipped a table upright, and spread out a few documents. Another man stepped in and set down a bag next to it.

"What's all this?" Cooke asked.

"A few contracts." she clicked a pen open, "Each one you have to sign, or your space will not be approved."

"What are they?" Markus peered over at them.

"There are five. One for saying you will not produce weapons, one that says you will not make weapons of mass destruction, will not make devices that threaten the nation in any way, shape or form, will not associate with enemies of the United States, and most importantly, will not do anything that endangers the lives of any person or persons, and animals. You will both have to sign."

Cooke nodded, "I suppose that's all justifiable."

Markus nodded in agreement. They both signed all the papers, and the man with the bag brought out two stamps and stamped all the paperwork, then notarized them.

"Enjoy your new lab." The agent and the notary left the building.

Cooke and Markus stared in awe. The building was a perfect rectangle, about 100 feet by 50 feet, plus a bathroom and sizable storage closet in the corner. Big enough to do any kind of testing they wanted to.

"I guess..." Cooke chuckled a little bit, "I guess we clean up this dump."

"Let's do it."

* * *

After about two days of cleaning, the area was finally clear. They reused some of the crummy office tables, because it was that or use grant money to get better ones.

"Alright!" Markus clapped once to hear the echo, "All that's left is the storage closet!"

Cooke and Markus opened the closet, and a box full of papers flew out at them, they dodged it, and pulled out all the other ones.

"Awesome!" Cooke celebrated, "These are some pretty sturdy shelves, perfect for all the heavy stuff we're gonna put in here."

"Yeah, I suppose so." Markus began to shut the door, and something caught his eye, "Eh?"

"What is it?" Cooke looked questionably at him.

Markus opened the door, and they looked at the floor of the closet. They noticed a section of it wasn't a floor, but a trapdoor.

"Could it... Be a safe?" Cooke pondered.

Markus shook his head, "Naw, it has an RFID scanner." he pointed out a small gray panel in the corner, "This is government property, we need to tell them about this."

"Well- Hey now," Cooke grinned, "It wouldn't be harmless to open it, would it?"

"It might!" Markus warned, "We don't know what's down there! It could be the Roswell crash remains for all we know!"

Cooke put his ear up to it, and knocked on it. It was very metallic, and hollow. "Odds are, it's just a bunker for anyone who worked here. Wouldn't it be neat to have our own bunker?"

"Maybe, but, we don't even have a way to get in!" Markus reminded.

"Actually, yes, we do!"

"No we don't!"

"Yes we do!"

"No. We. Don't!"

"Yes. We. Do!"

"No we DON'T!"

"YES WE DO!" Cooke pulled out his phone, "Remember that app you made to prove RFID isn't a safe and secure way to lock doors in buildings? The one that detects the signal it's scanning for, then emulates it?"

Markus looked shocked, "No... You did NOT steal a copy of that program!"

"It's the only one I took from you!" Cooke admitted, "I only used it once to trick the soda machine into giving me a free Sprite!"

"For shame!"

"I was thirsty!"

Markus walked away and turned his back, "Since I can't stop you, I'm gonna look away and not witness anything!"

"Suit yourself!" Cooke placed his phone on top of the sensor, and not 15 seconds later, the door popped up slightly. "It's open!"

"That's great for you!" Markus gave a thumbs up, but didn't look.

Cooke grabbed his phone, and opened the trap door all the way. Inside was a narrow set of spiral stairs.

"Hey!" Cooke called, "There's a set of stairs!"

"I advise you don't go down them!"

"I'm gonna do it!" Cooke turned his phone into a flashlight, and descended down the stairs, "Bye!"

Markus tried to ignore it, but he didn't want his friend to get hurt. "...Dangit."

* * *

Markus ran over, and went down the stairs.

Markus reached the bottom, where Cooke was waiting.

"Decided to join?" Cooke dumbly smiled.

"Someone needs to pull you out of here when you get hurt!"

"Aw, my heart flutters."

"Let's just quickly look around, and get out of here." Markus looked down the dark hallway and saw light. Cooke nodded in agreement.

They went down the hall, and came to a room that looked like a massive command center.

"What the...?" Markus eyed the place. It was a large room, with a massive television monitor on a metal desk surrounded by several other smaller monitors, and a circular thing immediatly to the right of it. There was also an elevator-looking thing implanted in the wall.

"Is this... A video gaming rig?" Cooke awed.

"No, it's in a government building... I think... It's a super computer!" Markus panicked.

"Awesome!" Cooke cheered, "The government accidentally gave us access to their super computer!"

"We need to tell them right now." Markus backed away.

"I completely agree." Cooke crossed his arms, "But first, I've never seen a super computer. Have you?"

"No... Why?"

"Don't you want to see one?"

"No- well..." Markus trailed, "I guess... As long as we don't touch anything, we should be okay."

"Alright!" Cooke stepped into what he assumed was a small elevator, "Uh, we'll have to go one at a time. I don't think this was made ADA complient."

"Okay, just, send it up when you're off it." Markus asked. Cooke smiled, and nodded. "Now, go."

"Uh, problem."

"What is it?"

"There's no button. Maybe it's computer controlled?"

"I'm not touching that computer."

"C'mon man, it's just running the elevator. No harm in doing that much."

Markus sighed, and trudged over to the computer, "It's probably not even-"

The screens flickered on, as if they were in sleep mode.

"-on?"

"We don't have all day, hurry up." Cooke impatiently tapped the sides of the elevator.

"Alright, alright," Markus at down and pulled the keyboard up to himself.

He tapped away at it for a minute.

"Come ON man!"

"Hold on!" Markus smiled, "I think I got it!"

A window popped up showing Cooke in the elevator.

"Excellent!"

Markus cracked his knuckles, "Okay... Here... We... Go!"

He hit enter on the keyboard, and the elevator doors closed.

"See? Was that so hard?"

Suddenly, air started rushing past Cooke, and there was some sort of body scan on the screen of the computer.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" Cooke cried out.

"I... I DON'T KNOW! I CAN'T STOP IT!"

50%... 60%...

"AHHHHHHHH-" Cooke's scream was cut off.

70%... 80%...

Markus couldn't do anything but watch the screen in horror.

90%... 100%

The elevator doors opened, and Cooke wasn't there.

* * *

Cooke appeared in a virtual world made of ice suspended in mid air, then fell down, "OW!"

He looked around, and there was lots of cartoonish looking ice. He looked at his hands, which were also virtual. He couldn't believe his eyes.

"MARKUS!" he screamed, "MAAAAAARKUUUUUUSSS!"

Markus heard something, coming out of the headset placed within arms reach, "Uh... Hello?"

"Markus!"

"Cooke!" Markus teared up, "You're alive!"

"I... I think so!" Cooke looked over the landscape, seeing a sea of ice, "You wouldn't believe what I'm seeing right now!"

"What are you seeing?"

"Ice! Like, virtual ice!" Cooke awed, "I think I'm in a video game!"

"You're right, I don't believe you in the slightest." Markus let out a single laugh. Then, a 3D holographic map popped up in the circular thing next to him, "Uh... I take that back..."

Cooke looked himself over, he was in a blue, white, and black leotard with a silver cogwheel in the center of his chest.

"What the... I look like an idiot."

"What do you look like?"

"An idiot." Cooke deadpanned, "It's hard to explain"

Cooke looked behind him, and saw a short sword protruding from a sheath on his back.

"Anything else?"

"I have a sword." Cooke drew it, and looked over it. It was no more than a foot and a half long, and it had ridges engraved into it, and a green light under his index finger on the sword.

"What's it look like?"

"Like awesomeness forged into a small sword."

Cooke tapped the light, and it turned red. The ridges on the sword then broke apart, and the sword blade fell apart, but all the segments were held together by a chain, "Woah... It's like, a sword that turns into a whip with knives all over it. Or one of those knives on the end of a chain in those kung-fu movies you like."

"Oh, that thing!" Markus remembered, "That's pretty awesome!"

Cooke retracted the whip back into a sword, and sheathed it, "So, uh, how do I get out of here?"

"I... Have no idea." Markus shook his head, dumbfounded.

"Well, tap away at that keyboard and find out!" Cooke demanded, "If there's a way to send me into this... Place... There's gotta be a way to get me out of it!"

"I'll figure it out, don't worry." Markus calmed, "This is why I majored in computer programming and you majored in mechanical engineering."

"I suppose it's chance you aren't here and I'm not there." Cooke replied.

"Please!" Markus laughed, "If you were here, you'd still be trying to figure out how to operate the elevator that's clearly not an elevator!"

"Oh, hush."

A screen popped up on Markus' screen, like a mini map. Showing a green dot and two red dots rapidly closing in.

"Uh... Huh." Markus scratched his head.

"Huh what?"

"There's, uh, two red dots coming near you, I think." Markus tapped away.

"Red... dots?" Cooke took out his sword, "Red dots aren't good, right?"

"I have no idea."

Cooke looked around. He had a wall behind him, and a straight path through some rocks in front of him.

"Where are these dots?"

"Right in front of you."

Cooke looked around at the rocks ahead of him cautiously, but saw nothing.

"Markus, are you sure of what those two red dots are? Because I'm not seeing anyt-"

_PSHEW! PSHEW!_

"I take that baaaaaack!" Cooke ran down the path, and two mechanical wolves came from behind the rocks and started chasing him, "WOLF! WOLF!"

"THERE'S WOLVES?!" Markus freaked, "KILL THEM!"

"EASIER SAID THAN DONE!"

_PSHEW! PSHEW!_

The mecha-wolves fired lasers from their mouths, and gained ground against Cooke.

"I THINK THOSE ARE HEALTH BARS ON MY SCREEN!" Markus screamed into the headset, "TAKE EM OUT!"

Cooke looked behind him, and saw the two wolves were side by side. He switched his sword into bladed whip mode, and swung at them

He hit them both first try, and they exploded in an orange implosion.

"Phew!" Markus relaxed, "The screen says you have 80 life points left.

"They didn't hit me though!"

"I didn't make the rules, you must've been hit." Markus deduced, "This is getting way too dangerous, we need to bring you back and shut this godawful thing down immediately."

"Any ideas?"

"Uh, go get yourself killed by a wolf?"

"That's a terrible idea! How do we know that won't kill me?! For realsies?!"

"We know nothing!" Markus slammed his fist down on the desk, "But what I do know is you're made of code, and if you die for real in the game, I can potentially recover your data."

"_Potentially_?" Cooke looked around in disgust, "I'm gonna need a little more reassurance than that!"

"Man, you're trapped in a virtual world! I'm still trying to wrap my head around that!" Markus barked, "Look, I can't make any promises right now. I don't know what I'm dealing with."

Cooke sighed, and kept on walking, "Just... Let me know if anything else pops up on your screen."

"I'll keep you posted." Markus acknowledged.

* * *

About half an hour later, Cooke started hearing shots being fired.

"Yo, Markus, are there any monsters on screen?" Cooke asked, "Because I hear something."

"No, try climbing something to get a better view?"

Cooke ran behind a large rock, and climbed on top of it. He could see a bunch of monsters attacking a large black monolith in an arena.

"Oh! I see activity now!" Markus chimed, "It looks like... Ten monsters in total.

Cooke saw a few mechanical wolves, a mechanical vulture circling the black towering thing, and a platoon of mechanical skeletons wielding laser rifles.

"This is something straight out of science fiction." Cooke rubbed his forehead.

"What's it like down there?"

"Like Disneyland let themselves go, it's insane."

"What are they doing?"

"They're all firing at a square black tower. I don't think that's good." Cooke deduced.

"Alright... I have the tower on my screen." Markus informed, "...Woah! Something's happening!"

The tower broke off small sections that stared floating, and emitting an orange glow.

"No kidding!" Cooke awed at this marvel. The monsters stopped firing, and surrounded the tower. "Now they're... Defending it?"

A warning popped up on Markus' screen, "Uhh... Data is being downloaded from this computer!"

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Uh... Yes! A very bad thing!"

"What do we do about it?"

"Uhm... Okay..." Markus calmed down, "...This tower has been "activated," yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Well, logic dictates that if it's activated, it can be deactivated, right?"

"Naturally."

"You have to go into the tower somehow, and deactivate the download."

"Okay, so, how do I enter it, and how do I deactivate it?"

"I... You got me. I don't know." Markus sighed, "Just, go down, kill the monsters, and we'll figure it out from there."

"I could hardly handle two, I don't know about ten!"

"If you have any better ideas, I'd love to hear em!"

Cooke groaned, and wielded his sword, "Alright, where should I go to attack?"

"Uhhh..." Markus looked over at the holographic map next to him, "...There's a slope you could slide down and surprise them."

Cooke looked over to his left, "...Yeah, I see it." He drew in a deep breath, and let it out, "...There's no actual air here. Why am I doing that?"

"Cooke!"

"Alright! Alright!" Cooke sprinted from behind the rock, and slid down the pathway.

Only to get immediatly pulverized, and devirtualized.

* * *

The doors to the tiny room closed, and open a moment later, with an exhausted Cooke sitting down with his back against the room.

Markus ran over, "You're alive!"

"Yeah, yeah..." He took a deep breath, "...Actual air!"

"You'll have time to catch your breath," Markus helped him up, "We have to shut this thing down pronto."

Cooke nodded rapidly, "Yeah... But, what about that download?"

"Don't worry about it, it stopped almost immediatly after you left." Markus assured, "And even if it does mean something, we're shutting it down anyways."

Cooke grabbed his head to orient himself, "Okay... Let's not waste time. Where is it?"

"I think we need to go downstairs even farther." Markus pointed to the spiral staircase.

The two walked over to the stairs, and pulled out a section of floor paneling, revealing a continuation of the spiral stairs.

They went downstairs, and came face to face with a ceiling high black tower with a blue light in the center, and the letters M.A.T.R.I.K.S. stenciled down the side.

"This must be it." Cooke admired, "I wonder what Matriks stands for."

"Doesn't matter to me." Markus approached a console in the center of the room, with a glowing blue flash drive sticking out of it. The console itself had a small LCD screen, a red and green button, and a USB port the flash drive is sticking out of.

"Would you like the honors?" Cooke offered.

"Nah, you're the one that nearly got killed today. You earned it." Markus presented the console.

"It'd be my pleasure." Cooke smiled, and pulled the flash drive out.

The LCD screen flashed "DO YOU WANT TO SHUT DOWN?" Cooke pressed the green button, assuming it means yes.

The tower shrank into itself, and sunk into the floor, and the hole it sank into closed up.

"Okay, that was pretty awesome." Cooke laughed in amusement.

Suddenly, red lights started flashing, and alarms started blaring, _BRAAAANG! BRAAAANG! BRAAAANG!_

"What's going on?!" Markus scrambled.

The two peered over over at the samll screen, which now read: "WARNING! BATTERIES 1-6 OVERHEATING! EXPLOSION IMMINENT!"

"TURN IT BACK ON!" Markus screamed.

Cooke put the flash drive back in, and pressed the green button. The alarms stopped, and the floor opened back up, spitting the computer tower back up and reactivating it. The screen now read: "M.A.T.R.I.K.S. ONLINE."

"Okay, we're only set back a little bit." Markus breathed, "We just need to pop out the batteries, see what the cooling issue is, and fix it. Easy peasy."

Cooke already approached the computer tower, and started inspecting it "Uhh... We're set back by a lot more than you think."

"What is it?" Markus asked. Cooke waved him over to the backside of the tower, where he saw a large panel, with a radioactivity warning, "Oh... NO!"

"The thing is nuclear powered!" Cooke grabbed his hair, "We can't shut it down, or it'll become a nuclear bomb!"

"The coolant is probably linked to the computer, and shuts down when the computer shuts down," Markus punched the wall, "Which explains why it was on when we got here."

"What do we do?" Cooke looked at Markus, worried.

"...Let's find out what we're dealing with first." Markus nodded, "I don't wanna hand it over to the government, because I'm afraid they might just shut it down."

"Alright... But you have until tomorrow." Cooke laid out, "I don't wana be picked up on charges of WMDs, so the sooner the better."

"Fair enough." Markus agreed, "I'll work through the night and hopefully have some results by breakfast."

"Pff!" Cooke laughed, "Have fun! I'm gonna head back to our dorm for the night. Call me if you need anything."

The two went their separate ways, Markus trying to figure out what the computer is, and Cooke trying to forget it.


	2. An Awkward Meeting

Code Matriks

Episode 2: An Awkward Meeting

By B1ockh3d

Author's Note: I said in chapter 1 I'd post a new chapter either every Monday or every other Monday. I'm really spending my time with these chapters and writing full episodes, heck, this chapter along is over 7,500 words, and I'm going to college at the same time. I really want to make good content, so I am going to aim for every other Monday. The next chapter may be a week or two late, because I have finals coming up at the end of May. But after that, I'm off!

* * *

The bell rang. Odd, Ulrich, Aelita, Jeremie, and the rest of the class piled into Ms. Hertz's room.

"Welcome to class, everybody." Ms. Hertz welcomed.

"Afternoon, Ms. Hertz." Everyone greeted back.

"I know you're in the last class of the day, so bear with me. It's going to be a relaxed class." She pulled up a powerpoint, "Last week, I went to the east coast of the United States to attend the Young Innovators Showcase."

"Ohh boy, here we go..." Odd whispered to Ulrich, "I think I'm gonna take a nap."

"Just don't get caught." Ulrich whispered back.

* * *

They sat through some of the competitor's slides, and talking about the scientific principles behind each one. They got to the last group, a black student and a white student that made a new type of battery.

"This was the winning team from Washington State University, Markus and Chri- uh, Cooke, that was his name." Ms. Hertz stumbled, "They got lucky, as the original team that won returned the prize of a lab and grant due to the fact they plagiarized their project. The WSU team made an aluminum battery with graphene super conductor and super capacitors, prolonging the life of any device that uses a lithium ion battery..."

"Goodness..." Odd moaned silently, "Who cares..."

The bell rang about five minutes later.

"That's all for today class. Remember, read chapters 14 and 15 in your books that you may or may not be pop quizzed on tomorrow." Ms. Hertz waved.

The gang reconvened outside the classroom.

"So, you guys doing anything?" Ulrich asked Aelita and Jeremie.

"We were gonna head to my room to finish up Kiwi 3.0." Jeremie answered, "We don't wanna lose to Sissi bot again."

"You technically didn't lose last time." Odd reminded

"We have titanium plating this time, just to be sure." Aelita smiled.

_DEEDLE DEEDLE DEEDLE!_

Jeremie picked up his phone, and gasped, "No way..."

"What is it?" Ulrich pried?

Jeremie showed his phone, which was flashing XANA's symbol. Chills went down everyone's spine.

"Activated tower." Jeremie frowned.

"But, you shut down the super compu- uh- thingy!" Odd caught himself.

"I made this app to detect any XANA activity across the internet, specifically on Tyron's super computer." Jeremie whispered, "It looks like the professor beat our virus. That means we have to make a whole new one."

"That's wonderful to hear, Einstien," Ulrich sarcastically complimented, "But we might have a spectre roaming the school, and Yumi and William don't know!"

"Alright, you guys go grab them, Jeremie and I will head to the factory to try to figure this out." Aelita proposed. Everyone nodded in agreement, and split.

* * *

"Hey man!" Markus shook Cooke, "Wake up!"

"Ugh..." Cooke rolled over, "It's Mondayyyy... We don't have class on Mondays... What is it?"

"I've learned quite a bit about our new computer in the basement of our lab." Markus hinted.

"Ehh?"

"The super computer." Markus put bluntly.

Cooke sat up, and rubbed his eyes, "Ohhkay... Go ahead."

"It's possible to shut it down safely."

"Y'mean, no big boom?"

"Yeah. One tiny issue."

"What?"

Markus exhaled, "Remember that thing that attacked you in the Matriks?"

"Which one?"

"All of them."

"Oh, believe me, I haven't forgotten. As much as I've tried."

"Well, it's all under one main program." Markus sat down, "That program is a virus."

"Oh, for god's sake... Did the government really use Windows on its super computer?" Cooke joked, "Just put ESET or whatever on it and get rid of it. Call it a day."

"It's not that simple. It gets worse." Markus warned, "This virus is a super powerful one that's growing. Y'see, the computer has been on for quite a while. This virus has been using those towers to download data from the super computer, and gain more control."

"Uhm... So... What does this mean?"

"It's set up a safety net." Markus answered, "This virus made it so if the computer shuts off, it goes into nuclear meltdown mode."

"...Oh!" Cooke finally registered what Markus was saying, "Crap!"

"So, the data it was downloading gave it even more power." Markus explained, "It's at about 60% power."

"What is it trying to do?"

"Ah, I'm so glad you asked." Markus sarcastically smiled, "I discovered there's four more "worlds" in this computer. Whoever used this computer probably realized that this Virus was gaining power through the towers, and completely encrypted the other worlds within the computer. So, what our virus is downloading is decryption data. It wants the other worlds to gain even more power, and possibly even get out of our computer."

"Even more reason to hand it to the government!" Cooke rubbed his eyes, "This is becoming dangerous!"

"I know, I know." Markus acknowledged, "But... I've found a way to deactivate those towers." Markus pulled out his laptop, and showed a display of the virtual tower, "Now, you enter the tower from any side, and it should suck you in."

"Suck?"

"Then, you'll be on the bottom platform. You need to ascend to the top, and a control panel will be there. Markus took a breath, "Then, I'm gonna send you a virtual keycard that will deactivate the tower for you."

"Wait, wait, wait, " Cooke held on to his head, "Are you saying we need to go fight this powerful virus?"

"Yep." Markus nodded.

"Why... Why don't we just tell Homeland security?" Cooke shook himself, "Let them deal with the nuke in our basement?"

"Because they don't know what we know, and they'll do one of two things," Markus held up two fingers, "One, they shut down the computer. Boom. Or two, they leave it on because it'll go boom, and the Virus gains even more ground because the government is too busy trying to figure out the issue, and it'll become unstoppable."

"...I see your point." Cooke nodded, "But why us? Why not tell the government what you know, and let them make a team to go to the world and stop the virus?"

"C'mon man, I just explained that to you!" Markus complained, "It's going to take too much time! Time we, the people of the real world, don't have time to wait for! We've already uncovered it and most of the critical programs needed, you've already been there, I have the technical prowess to run it, it just makes sense for us to go in there and finish the job. The government will take months to start, we can start today."

Cooke leaned back, and contemplated it, "...Alright. But we aren't bringing anyone else on board. The less that know, the better."

"Are you sure?" Markus bit his lower lip, "You struggled solo last night, maybe two or three people would be better."

"The less that know," Cooke harshly repeated, "The better!"

Markus sighed, "Alright, fine. I suppose as long as you're willing to go back to Matriks, we can make good progress."

Cooke rolled his eyes, "Let's head over to the lab."

* * *

Jeremie and Aelita stood over the console in the super calculator room, with start up key in hand.

"Should we turn it on?" Jeremie questioned.

Aelita shook her head, "Not until the others get here."

Jeremie nodded, and pulled out his phone and called Odd.

"Hello? Einstien?"

"Have you gotten Yumi and William yet?"

"They got out of class, we don't know where they went!"

Ulrich took the phone from Odd, "Neither one is answering their phones, I think they shut them off for their tests."

"Uh, alright. Give me a moment." Jeremie pulled out his laptop, and reactivated their phones, "Lessee... William is in his room, and Yumi is... Headed to the woods!"

Ulrich turned to Odd, "William is in his room, go get him!"

"On it!" Odd ran down the hall and upstairs.

"Ulrich, go find Yumi as fast as possible! If she gets touched, XANA wins!" Jeremie warned.

"I know, I know!"

* * *

Yumi's phone buzzed. She looked down, and saw that Odd was calling.

She picked up, "Hey Odd. What's going on?"

"It's Ulrich!" Ulrich looked down at the phone, and realized he forgot to give it back to Odd, "Look, as hard as it is to believe, there's an activated tower!"

Yumi stood up, and looked around. All around. "Seriously?!"

"Yeah!" Ulrich panted, "Where are you?!"

"Along the gate to the park!" Yumi picked up her bag, "What's the attack?!"

"I don't know! But assume it's a spectre!"

"Then how will I know it's you?"

"Same way as last time, ask me questions only I can answer!"

"Okay, I'll stay put."

Ulrich hung up, and called William.

"Uh, hello?" He started.

"William! It's Ulrich!"

"Oh, that explains why Odd is calling me even though he's right next to me."

"He found you? Good." Ulrich stopped, "Listen, Yumi's near the entrance to the park. Meet us there, we have to protect her."

"We're on it."

* * *

"Okay, Yumi's safe." Aelita hung up, "They're on their way."

"What should we do?" Jeremie fiddled with his laptop, "I can't run a tower scan on the Cortex or Lyoko until we turn the super computer back on."

"It's too risky, we might open our doors to XANA." Aelita shook her head, "And... What if it's a ploy by Tyron? Remember when he tricked us into coming to the Cortex to trap us? He tricked us into thinking it was activated by XANA."

"...You're right," Jeremie agreed, "He might just be testing us to see if we'll come back to the Cortex."

The elevator doors opened, and out stepped Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and William.

"Wait-" Jeremie paused, "If Tyron was doing all that, he still would've had to beat our virus. In which case, we still have the same mission."

"The second we step on the Cortex, the second he'll shut it down." Yumi warned.

"And Aelita is the only one who can open the Cortex. If he doesn't shut it down, he'll surely come back for Aelita." Ulrich reminded.

All the warriors looked around at each other, awkwardly. Then ultimately redirected their attention to Jeremie and Aelita.

Jeremie took a deep breath, then let it out, "Well... I hope you guys enjoyed your two month vacation."

"At least I'll get another chance at communicating with my mother." Aelita lightened.

Jeremie went up to the control console, and plugged a chip in. The floor opened up, and the black tower of a computer rose from the ground. A light in the center flickered on blue. It was booted.

* * *

"Alrighty," Markus walked into the computer's lab, "So, remember that thingy you thought was an elevator?"

"How could I forget it? It's right there." Cooke pointed at the elevator looking thing.

"That's not an elevator after all."

"OBVIOUSLY!"

"It's a scanner!" Markus sat down in front of the computer, "It scans your body, breaks it down into digital particulates, and creates a virtual avatar that you're in control of."

"Yeah, I figured that one out on my own."

"Well, would it also interest you to know that there's another computer out there exactly like ours?" Markus smirked.

"I... Find that hard to believe."

Markus pulled up several thousand pages of scanned documents, with almost all the content blacked out.

"What am I staring at?" Cooke tried to construct the context with the very little info given.

"These are the official documents for what I believe is to this computer."

"Sooo... What can you tell me about our computer?"

Markus pulled up a few selected pages, "From what I can gather, this computer was created off of a design from another country by another scientist, who's name I don't know."

"...That means absolutely nothing."

"Not why I have these pages pulled up." Markus zoomed in to one particular line with tops of letters sticking out from the censor bar, "I had the super computer analyze these letters, and the line says something along the lines of "all assets used in PROJECT MATRIKS were based off material provided by PROJECT" and it cuts off. I don't have enough to work with on the next line, other than the first letter being a capital C."

"Huh. So, Matriks is a clone of whatever Project C is?"

"Yeah. I don't know of or detect any other super computers, but I don't think I'm able to anyways." Markus scratched his head.

"Does this change our mission?"

Markus shook his head, "Nope. Get in, find a way to get code back, and shut down the computer. For today, just go in, and look for activity."

"Well then..." Cooke nodded, "Shall I dive in?"

"Go for it." Markus began the startup sequence, as Cooke entered the scanner.

"Beam me down, Scottie." Cooke waved, as the scanner doors closed.

* * *

Jeremie ran the tower scan. So far, nothing was popping up.

Everyone waited anxiously as Jeremie and Aelita went through the various code. Maybe 10 minutes.

"...Okay, I've got some good news, some bad news, and potentially horrifying news." Jeremie opened, "What would you like first?"

"Lay it on us, Einstien!" Odd cheered.

"Okay, bad news, Tyron did turn his computer back on, and beat our virus. Good news, the activated tower isn't on the Cortex, nor has XANA launched an attack yet."

"And the horrifying news?" Yumi asked.

"Well, hold on to your hopes and dreams. The activated tower isn't on Lyoko, either." Jeremie sulked, "I found a Replika."

"WHAT?!" The four other warriors collectively shouted in unison.

"Now, hold on," Jeremie soothed, "It gets worse."

"WORSE?!"

"This Replika, it's not like any one we've seen before." Aelita continued, "It has almost the exact same infrastructure as Lyoko. Replikas in the past have been XANA's approximations. This isn't like that. It's a super Replika."

"Like an exact duplicate of Lyoko." Jeremie stated.

"Soo... A _Lyoklone_?" Odd laughed.

Aelita smiled, "Heh, that's a good way to put it."

"How does this horifying news?" William pieced together.

"Well, this is where it gets bad." Jeremie pushed his glasses up, "It has a beefed up firewall, unlike any of the other Replikas. It's written completely different. It could take minutes or hours to figure out, and you guys have to sit there while the Skid is connected."

"The beefed up firewall also means we can't run a tower scan." Aelita bit her lower lip, "We know there's an active tower somewhere, and it's not on the Cortex or Lyoko. We have to assume it's on the Lyoklone."

Everyone idled, figuring out what had to happen to restore their former normal lives.

Ulrich sighed, "We all know what has to happen. Let's just do it. Before XANA can rear his ugly face."

Jeremie pulled up the scanning procedure program, "Okay then, everyone head down to the scanners."

Everyone collectively grunted, and piled in the elevator.

* * *

"So, my good friend," Cooke started, "Anything unusual?"

"Nothing near you." Markus yawned, "Man, I should've slept last night."

"You didn't sleep?" Cooke stopped, "I thought you slept in the lab?"

"Nooope. I was too busy digging up information on this computer."

"Did you dig up anything useful that can help me?"

Markus reached into his backpack, and pulled out an energy drink, "As a matter of fact, yes I did!"

"Oh?"

"Hold on," Markus popped open the can and took a swig. He opened up a program, and these black towers started showing up on screen being rapidly scanned, "An activated tower finder!"

"That's... VERY helpful actually." Cooke nodded, impressed.

"And in a few minutes, we should know-"

The computer started beeping, and the tower on screen showed it was activated, but the scanning screen began glitching out.

"Uh, we got one!" Markus jumped.

"Where?!"

"Uhh..." Markus squinted, trying to read the location through it glitching, "...South by... Northeast."

"...What."

"Oop, sorry. South by southeast."

"Bro, there's no sun here and I don't have a compass."

"Oh, right. There's a... Path to your left. The tower is kind of far off."

Cooke drew his sword and began running, "How long will it take to get there?"

"At your current speed... Twenty minutes."

"WONDERFUL."

* * *

Aelita swayed the Skid right to avoid an obstacle.

"Are we there yet?" Odd annoyingly asked. No one designated that with a response.

"Hey, guys?" Yumi started, "How are we going to get in to the Cortex without being spotted?"

"One struggle at a time, guys." Jeremie answered, "First, let's deactivate the tower and destroy the Lyoklone."

"Speaking of which," Aelita cut, "We're coming up on it."

Aelita turned the Skid left, and there it was. The Lyoklone was massive. It was easily quadruple the size of the regular Replikas, maybe even bigger than Lyoko.

"Alright, I'll start the procedure." Aelita came up on the entrance, and activated the digital key that shot out and connected to the XANA symbol.

"I'll take it from here!" Jeremie started tapping away at his keyboard, decrypting the password to get in.

* * *

An alarm started ringing on the computer, and a message popped up indicating a breach in progress.

"Uhh... Cooke?" Markus furiously fought the code, "The system is being breached! Someone, or something, is breaking into Matriks!"

Cooke stopped, "WHAT DO I DO?!"

"KEEP GOING TO THE TOWER!" Markus commanded, "I'm gonna throw everything I have at this hacker!"

Markus opened up the system key, and started throwing in code in an attempt to distort the hacker's work.

"Good god!" Markus panicked, "I'm good, but whatever or whoever is much faster than I am!"

"Keep em going!" Cooke shouted, "I think I can see the tower!"

Cooke got to a ledge overlooking the tower, and he noticed something was off, "Hey, this tower isn't orange. It's red."

"DOES IT MATTER?" Markus yelled, still typing like a mad man, "DEACTIVATE IT!"

Cooke took up a spot, and scoped out the area. No monsters in sight.

"I'm gonna make a run for it!" Cooke began sprinting down the hill towards the tower, and then-

The tower deactivated.

Cooke stopped, "Uhh, what happened?"

"What?"

"The tower... It's deactivated." Cooke scratched his head.

* * *

"I've got more good news and bad news, guys!" Jeremie fought his keyboard. He had been at this for 15 minutes now.

"Good news?" William asked.

"Good news, I'm making progress on decrypting this Lyoklone. It's a little frustrating, there's all sorts of junk code, but I'm getting through it."

"And the bad news?" Ulrich finished off.

"We're gonna have to abandon it. There's an activated tower on Lyoko now." Jeremie panted, "XANA probably wanted to drag you guys out there so he had more time to cause chaos over here."

"The ol' bait and switch." Odd applauded, "Really not XANA's style. Well done."

"Has he done anything yet?" Aelita worried.

Immediatly, the lights inside the factory shut off, and red emergency lights kicked on.

"Uh oh," Jeremie looked at the security cameras, which were all offline, "The power just went off in the factory."

"Just the factory?" Aelita checked.

Jeremie pulled up a local news station on his screen, but there was no feed. He checked all the channels, and there was no feed. He looked at Internet traffic, and it decreased by 95% at the same time the lights went out. All outgoing calls increased by over 70%.

"I... I think XANA caused a blackout." Jeremie tuned through all the radio stations, and found one still operating.

"Well! This doesn't look good!" The radio host laughed, "Our power just went out, and our backup took over."

"Look outside!" Another host tapped on a window, "It's darkness and complete gridlock out there!"

The main host cleared his voice, "Uh, this is WDPK 83.7 FM, my name is Joel Moore, and if you're tuning in, it looks like we are in a blackout. We'll let you know more soon? I hope?"

"Guys, we are getting very close, but we need to deactivate the tower and probably return to the past." Jeremie sadly informed.

Aelita wasted no time, severed the connection, and turned the Skid around.

* * *

"...Hey hey hey!" Markus celebrated, "No more mister hacker!"

"You beat him?!"

"Or he gave up!"

"Yaaay!" Cooke jumped up and down, "Bring me home now?"

"I still haven't unlocked that program yet," Markus pushed his glasses up, "Just commit seppuku."

"Dork." Cooke sneered, as he turned his short sword into a whip, and devirtualized himself.

* * *

"Now," Cooke sat down next to Markus, "Do you think the glitchy tower scanner and the hacking attempt were related?"

"Oh, definitely." Markus nodded, "Without doubt."

"Okay, how do we filter them out of our super computer?" Cooke posed, "Chances are, it's a hacking group committed to getting into government computers. If they get into this one, they don't know what kind of danger this thing might pose."

"So, let's replace our firewall. I'll make it extra messy." Markus pulled the keyboard to himself, "They can return anytime and continue their work, but if we change it out, they'll have to start from scratch."

"Good place to start." Cooke approached the spiral staircase, "I'm not much good here. Need anything?"

"An energy drink, and some cup o noodles." Markus waved.

* * *

"The activated tower is in the mountain sector." Jeremie led.

Aelita didn't wast time docking the Skid, she just flew it right over to the activated tower. Being protected by three Tarantulas, and an evil William taking heed of the middle one.

"I'm really starting to hate him." William commented.

"Hold on," Aelita opened fire, destroying two of the Tarantulas and knocking evil William off the third.

"Can you beam us down?" Yumi requested.

"Transferring," Jeremie answered, putting all the Lyoko warriors on the surface except Aelita.

"I'll get him!" William and Ulrich demanded in unison, then charged after evil William.

Odd and Yumi just stood there and watched.

"I wonder who the egomaniac of our little circle is." Odd joked.

Aelita swooped in with the Skid and took out the last Tarantula, then flew off to sector 5 to dock it. "You got this, Yumi?"

"I think I'll manage." Yumi smiled, watching Ulrich and William taking down the evil William.

"DO NOT THINK I WILL EVER GIVE UP THIS EASY!" Evil William warned, "I AM COMING FOR YOU, AND I WILL REGAIN MY STRENGTH!"

Evil William super smoked, and fled the scene.

"This was way too easy!" Odd complained, "I didn't even fire a single laser arrow!"

"For someone who said they wouldn't give up so easily, they sure threw in the towel pretty quickly." Ulrich sheathed his swords.

"I remember some things when serving XANA," William recalled, "He wasn't here to fight us. That was a threat."

"He can threaten us all he wants, we're not slipping up." Ulrich replied.

Yumi had already taken this time to deactivate the tower, and Aelita docked the Skid. Jeremie devirtualized everyone, and the blackout was over.

* * *

"So far, over a thousand car accidents have been reported, over two dozen of those accidents have landed people in the hospital, one is in critical condition." The news anchor announced.

The gang all watched the report from Jeremie's monitor, somewhat mortified.

Jeremie swivveld around, "I think... It would be best if we launched a return to the past. Anyone oppose it?"

Everyone shook their heads.

Jeremie turned back to his computer, set the time for about five hours ago, and hit enter. "Return to the past now!"

* * *

"Last week, I went to the east coast of the United States to attend the Young Innovators Showcase." Ms. Hertz began, yet again.

Odd leaned over to Jeremie, "Hey, Einstien, couldn't you have cut to after this class?"

"Sorry, this was the closest I could go back." Jeremie whispered, "I had to go back before XANA launched the attack. And considering the super computer wasn't active before this class, I'd say I did pretty good!"

"Mr. Belpois," Ms. Hertz shot, "I take it you're very excited about this showcase?"

"Uhh, actually, I am!" Jeremie improvised, "I read about it online! I was very intrigued by the group that made an aluminum and graphene battery, and all I was doing was explaining to Odd what graphene was and why it's so cool."

"I still don't know what it is." Odd contributed.

"Oh!" Ms. Hertz lit up, "I see, it is indeed quite fascinating. I'll explain it when I get to the last group. Now, this showcase..."

* * *

"Hey man!" Markus shook Cooke, "Wake up!"

"Ugh..." Cooke rolled over, then sprang up. How did he get here? He was just standing in line to purchase Markus' lunch. "What... What happened?"

"I've learned quite a bit about our new computer in the basement of our lab." Markus hinted.

"Yeah, you've told me. There's a super virus that made it so our computer goes boom unless we reclaim the code." Cooke dazed.

"How... How did you know that?" Markus puzzled, "I just found that out about an hour ago!"

"Yeah, and that you found a way to deactivate the towers- what on EARTH is going on?" Cooke slapped himself, "What time is it?!"

"It's nine in the morning, on Monday. No classes today." Markus observed the panicked Cooke, "Are you alright, man?"

"How's the work on the new firewall?" Cooke stopped.

"Uhh... What's wrong with our current one?" Markus questioned.

"Don't you remember the hacker busting into our system?"

"No, it's super strong. That can't happen."

Cooke jumped out of bed and right into his shoes and grabbed his backpack, while still in his pajamas, "Alright man, either I had he most realistic dream that told me the future, or I went back in time somehow. Either way, we need to go to the super computer STAT!"

Cooke scrambled out the door, with Markus chasing in tow.

* * *

"Are you sure you're okay?" Markus unlocked the door to their lab.

"I keep telling you, I was on Matriks, we had a red tower, NOT orange, that deactivated itself, and a hacking attempt that went awry." Cooke explained, "When I left to get lunch, you were replacing the firewall so the next hacking attempt was slowed down."

"How would you remember all this and not me, though?"

Cooke furiously put his arms up, "Beats me!"

They went down into the super computer room, and woke everything up.

Markus sat down and started going through the various code, "...Oh my god, our firewall is in shambles!"

"Because you were replacing it!" Cooke pointed, "...How does the computer remember this?!"

"I don't know, but this is an utter mess! How can I figure out what I was doing if I can't even understand what I did here?!"

"You said, in my timeline anyways, the hacker was faster than you, and you were throwing in random crap code to throw them off." Cooke explained, "They were getting through our original firewall, so you were making a new one that was "extra messy" to buy us time."

Markus scrolled through the coding, "...Okay, I'm starting to pick up on what I was doing."

"Finish it as fast as you can." Cooke calmed down, "I don't know when the hacker will return."

* * *

"Well, THAT was a waste of time." Odd complained.

"Gonna go hit the hay?" Ulrich asked.

"Maybe." Odd yawned.

"Not until we destroy the Lyoklone, guys." Jeremie reminded.

"We have to wait, what, eleven more hours?" Odd recalled.

"Actually, we don't." Aelita held up the computer chip to activate the super computer, "We went back to a time the super computer wasn't on. It's been reset."

"You mean, we can go back now?" Ulrich pieced together.

Jeremie nodded, "The sooner we jump on it, the sooner we can get in without any XANA issues. Plus, with all the progress we made on the firewall to the Lyoklone, we'll be inside in seconds."

"Alright, let's get it over with then." Odd slumped, "Pizza's on Einstien and Princess though!"

"Only if we're successful!" Aelita agreed.

"We know where to find Yumi and William, we'll gather them up." Ulrich promised. They all split up.

* * *

"It feels so weird to be here twice in one day." Yumi commented, as Aelita steered the Skid past a network hub.

"Don't get used to it." Jeremie replied, "We got lucky."

"Hey, where do you guys think the super computer will be this time?" Odd pondered, "Mars?"

"Mars? Don't be ridiculous!" Ulrich laughed, "Yeah, XANA built a super Replika on the Curiosity rover, I'm certain."

"You never know!" Odd laughed.

"Hey guys," William asked, "Can I go this time?"

"Any particular reason?" Yumi queried.

"I've... Just never gone before. I've had the whole XANA thing going on when you guys went." William shrugged.

"I don't see any problem with that." Aelita allowed, "It'll be Yumi, William and I."

"You mean I have to stay with stinky Odd at the Skid?" Ulrich complained.

"Hey now!" Odd retorted, "I've been showering every day since we first shut off Lyoko, my hygiene is waaaay better!"

"You still only do your laundry once every month." Ulrich stuck his tongue out in disgust.

"Guys, we have ladies present," William reminded, "They, and I, don't want to hear about it!"

"We're coming up on the entrance!" Aelita announced, effectively shutting everyone up, "Activating digital key."

"Okay, it should only- oh no." Jeremie stumbled, "The firewall's been replaced!"

* * *

"Uhh..." Markus stared at the warning on the screen, "Breaching notice!"

"ALREADY?!" Cooke ran over and looked over all the screens, "Can you send me in?!"

"Not for another thirty minutes!" Markus slammed the keyboard, "They're gonna be inside in fifteen! What will going into Matriks solve?!"

"The're breaking into the world, right? They're some sort of entity! What can we do to delay them?!"

Markus pulled out his laptop and shoved it over to Cooke, "Plug in and we're gonna send them loads of pop-ups!"

"Will that really hold them off?!"

"Got any better ideas?!"

Cooke grabbed a USB cable and plugged in. The two of them combined sent the hacker pop ups and random execute programs.

* * *

"Man!" Jeremie kept closing windows, "These guys are desperate!"

"What's going on Jeremie?" Aelita begged.

"They're sending me a barrage of pop-ups and small viruses!" Jeremie cracked his knuckles, "Nothing good ol' Einstien can't handle though!"

"How long is it going to take you?" Yumi looked up at the doorway to the Lyoklone.

"Twenty minutes, thirty at most." Jeremie tapped away, "These guys are good, but I'm faster."

"Assuming there's a person at the other end." Ulrich corrected.

"Ulrich, a computer doesn't reprogram its entire firewall after a breach. And it doesn't prepare pop-ups for us." Jeremie shook his head, "There's someone on the other side of this!"

"Then they should know you're going to get through anyways, why delay it?" William pondered.

"Like us, they aren't going down without a fight." Aelita answered.

* * *

"How much more time?!" Cooke yelled.

"Five minutes until they breach!"

"I meant until I could go back!"

"Ten!"

Cooke picked up the laptop, and stretched the cable all the way to the scanner, and sat down in it, "Send me in the second you can!"

"Figure out how to delay them an extra six minutes and you got a deal!"

"Believe me! I'm never gonna give up!" Cooke continued, then stopped, "...Ohhhhh I've got a good idea!"

* * *

Jeremie kept fighting back, and winning, "Three more minutes!"

Suddenly, the computer stopped responding, and opened over ten thousand pages to YouTube, and a familiar beat began.

"We're no strangers to loooove~ You know the rules, and so do I!"

"HAHAHAHAH!" Odd busted out laughing, "They aren't giving up!"

"Jeremie, what happened?" Aelita asked, concerned.

"I've been Rick Rolled about ten thousand times at once!" Jeremie closed all the windows, only for ten thousand more to open, this time it was an airhorn rendition, "Aaaaugh!"

* * *

Cooke kissed his fingertips like an Italian chef, "My finest work!"

"It's delayed them by-" Markus slammed his fist on the table, "Four minutes!"

Cooke set the computer up for a ten minute auto pilot, "Keep em busy for just one additional minute!"

"You still have six minutes before you can get in!" Markus reminded.

Cooke ran over to the desk, and threw his backpack over the camera sitting in front of Markus. "I know! Just enough time!"

He then checked around for other cameras, only seeing the one in the scanner, which he wasn't worried about.

"How long?!"

"I got you another thirty seconds!" Markus informed.

"Great!" Cooke sat back inside the scanner, and continued work on the laptop, "How much longer?!"

"Three!"

Cooke pushed a button, and shoved the laptop away from him. He stood at the ready.

"That should buy me another minute, so I'll have thirty seconds to get ready!"

"I hope you're right!" Markus slamming away at the keys, "Two minutes!"

Cooke quickly dashed out, and grabbed an energy drink from Markus' bag, popped it open, and set it down for Markus, "You earned it!"

"Thanks! Get in the scanner! One minute!" Markus shooed. Cooke took his position inside the scanner, "Alright, transferring in three... Two... One!"

* * *

"Get ready guys, I'm about to break the code!" Jeremie announced. Not twenty seconds later, the access port opened up, and the Skid flew in.

"It was a valiant effort, I'll give them that." Aelita looked up into the world, "It's an ice world."

"Aww, my least favorite!" Odd exaggerated, "I always forget my jacket!"

"Very funny, Odd." Ulrich fake laughed, "Haven't heard that one before."

"Hush guys, I'm picking up a signal that looks a lot like evil William's!" Jeremie panicked.

"Send me down!" William demanded.

"It's almost certainly a trap laid out for you!" Yumi warned.

"Hold on- huh." Jeremie scratched his chin, "It's not evil William, but it has a funny signal. Like a spectre."

"Ooo!" Odd danced, "Spectres are my specialty!"

"Okay, transferring." Jeremie transferred.

* * *

Cooke hid behind a rock. He caught a glimpse of a weird looking craft with spore-looking things hanging off of it hovering above the pathway.

Cooke peeked over, and saw a purple human cat with a blond point hairdo, "What the..."

"I'm picking up movement twenty meters in front of you." Markus informed.

"Yeah, it's a purple cat man." Cooke whispered, "And I did say that with a straight face."

"Purple cat man?" Markus chuckled, "Are you sure you're okay man?"

"Positive." Cooke drew his sword, and hovered his finger over the switch to change it into a bladed whip.

He heard the cat man walk closer to him, then stopped.

"Bonjour, XANA!" It called out.

"Did... Did I just hear someone say hello in French?" Markus asked, "I can't hear it very well."

"Who is za-nah?" Cooke questioned.

"Ten meters, man. Make your move!" Markus advised.

"Those two karate lessons I took when I was a kid better pay off now!" Cooke turned the corner, and immediatly dodged a barrage of tiny projectiles.

"Laser arrows!" He called out.

Cooke ducked, spun around, and turned his sword into a whip. On his finished rotation, he managed to hit him square in the chest, knocking him back.

"Ah!"

Cooke took this time and jump kicked him onto the ground, and the cat man immediatly fired back, nailing Cooke in the arm.

"70 life points remaining!"

"Don't nag me, Markus." Cooke breathed, and blocked the next round of projectiles with his sword.

Cooke swung left, and right, and left, but the cat man was too quick. Which, in itself was kind of embarrassing.

"Hahah!" Cat man laughed, "Je suis trop vite!" ("I'm too fast!")

"I'm about to smack your cat face to the digital moon!" Cooke activated his bladed whip.

The cat man froze, somewhat confused, "Eh, English?"

"This ain't France!" Cooke swung and wrapped his whip around the cat man, and pulled.

Devirtualizing him.

"It could've been from Canada." Markus reminded.

"Uhh, the cat man devirtualized."

"Great!"

"No! He _devirtualized_," Cooke emphasized, "All the other enemies explode!"

"Wait, that means-"

"The virtual entities are people just like me!" Cooke realized, "Then, that must mean they have their own super computer and scanners."

Markus gasped, "PROJECT C!"

"I'll go find their odd looking ship, you try to come in contact with them!" Cooke ran off.

* * *

Odd stepped off the elevator, and ran over to Jeremie, "Hold on!"

"What?"

"The weird signal wasn't a spectre!" Odd warned, "It was another person!"

Jeremie adjusted his mic, "Guys, we have an issue! Stop the Skid!"

"We're closing in on the Way tower, what's going on?" Aelita asked, bringing the Skid to a halt.

"The spectre is another person!" Jeremie answered.

"What?!" The Skid crew shouted in unison.

Aelita turned around, and saw the man waving his sword, and shouting. He was too far away to hear anything.

"...Let me go down and talk to him." Aelita suggested.

"Let's all go down here and talk to him." Ulrich glared.

Yumi shook her head, "Ulrich, we shouldn't-"

"Seconded." William agreed, "We don't know what kind of threat he poses."

"You must've really pained yourself to agree with Ulrich, huh?" Odd laughed.

"Shut up Odd!" William and Ulrich retorted.

* * *

Cooke stared at the weird ship, wondering how it got into Matriks from wherever it came from.

Suddenly, he saw four bodies digitalize in front of him. One person with pink hair, one person that looked very Japanese, one person that looked emo, and one person that reminded him of a human version of Zer0 from Borderlands 2.

"I take it you guys speak French too." Cooke started.

"Oui. But our English is just fine." The pink one answered, "Who are you?"

Cooke cocked his neck back, "Nuh-uh. You came here, to my world, who are _you_?"

"I'm Aelita, this is Yumi, William, and Ulrich." Aelita introduced.

Cooke nodded, "Call me Cooke. What are you guys doing here on Matriks?"

"Matriks?" Ulrich queried, "_This _is Matriks?"

"Excuse us," Aelita interjected, "We come from, er, have a world like this called Lyoko. This is what we call a Replika."

"Hey!" Markus interrupted, "I can hardly hear them, I don't think their computer operator can hear you. Can you tell them to open a channel with me with their computer user?"

"Right, right," Cooke shook off, "Can you tell your user to open up a communication-"

"Done!" A strange voice overhead answered, "My name's Jeremie."

"And I'm Odd! You devirtualized me! The big purple cat!" Odd reminded.

"Ohhkay..." Cooke looked around, confused.

"I'm Markus." Markus greeted overhead as well.

Everyone looked around at each other, dumbfounded.

"...Well... This is awkward." Cooke stated.

"What are you guys doing here?" Markus began.

"Honestly, we're here to destroy your super computer." Aelita answered, "It would be best if you guys turned it off."

"Ah, no can do." Cooke shook his head, "We tried that. And what happened was our nuclear batteries began overheating, and they would've gone super nuclear if we didn't turn the computer back on."

"So, your coolant is linked to the computer." Jeremie figured out, "Can't you guys just run them separately?"

"We can!" Cooke nodded, "But! There's a virus here on Matriks that made it impossible for the coolant to run on its own."

"You mean, XANA?" William clarified.

Cooke shrugged, "Does Xena attack with mechanical wolves, birds, and skeletons?"

Yumi shook her head, "That doesn't sound right at all."

"Yeah, it's a different virus." Jeremie seamlessly answered, "I'm doing a scan of their system, they are incubating a new virus."

"Oh great, now we have _two _viruses to take care of?!" Ulrich whined

"How are you in our system?" Markus interrogated. A window opened on Markus' screen showing Jeremie and Odd at the helm of their super computer.

"Uh, I've been inside since I got through your firewall." Jeremie bluntly reminded, "Props to you guys, though. That was quite an effort to keep us out."

"Thanks. We had to replace it when you broke through the last one." Cooke thanked sarcastically.

"Wait, you remember that?" Aelita puzzled.

"Of course I-" Cooke stammered, "Woah woah woah, hold on, you know what happened?!"

"Huh." Jeremie pondered, "Even though he's not linked to our super computer, he wasn't affected by the return to the past."

"Told you I wasn't going crazy, Markus!" Cooke air punched.

"Return to the past?" Markus scratched his head, "You mean, you guys time traveled?"

"In a sense." Aelita confirmed.

"I take it you haven't set foot in the scanner?" Jeremie asked.

"You are correct to believe I wouldn't step into that thing." Markus shook his head.

"It happened to me too. Just get yourself scanned, and you won't be affected by the return trips." Jeremie advised.

"Alright, it's pretty clear we have a lot to talk about." Cooke interrupted, "Let's talk over webcam."

"I think we're all okay with that." Yumi agreed.

"Sooo..." Cooke trailed, "Can someone kill me please?"

William summoned a giant sword, and struck down with a mighty blow, effectively devirtualizing Cooke.

* * *

"Huh." Aelita tilted her head, "Now that I see you both side-by-side, I swear I've seen you guys before."

"Well, you believe us, we'd remember you guys if we've met before." Markus shrugged.

"Yeah, you guys have very distinct... Faces." Cooke nodded, while looking at Odd and Aelita's hair.

"How did you guys get your super computer?" Jeremie asked.

"Funny you should ask, we won it from the government." Markus bit his lower lip.

"Hahahah!" Odd laughed, "Incredible! Did they lose it in a poker game? Do tell!"

"Well, that's the thing." Cooke continued, "I don't think our government knows they gave us this... Thing!"

"We took part in a scholarship competition, and part of the spoils was a lab in our respective town." Markus elaborated.

"What did you guys do to win?" Yumi asked.

"We built an aluminum and graphene super cell battery." Cooke proudly answered.

Jeremie snapped his fingers, "So THAT'S how we know you!"

"The Young Innovators thing from Ms. Hertz's presentation, right!" Aelita relieved.

"Ah, Mademoiselle Hertz!" Cooke reminded, "What a small world!"

"How long have you guys been visiting Matriks?" Jeremie interviewed.

"Since last night." Markus answered.

"Really?" Jeremie raised an eyebrow, "Need any help with anything?"

"Uhh... Yeah. Can you help Markus figure out how to devirtualize me like you guys do?" Cooke requested. Jeremie nodded.

"And, we're trying to figure out more about this computer. We have a document that's mostly censored, and we're trying to figure out what it contains." Markus sent over the file.

"Hm." Jeremie grunted, "What do you guys know?"

Cooke shrugged, "Uhh... Matriks was based off of something called Project C. Well, the C is all we can make ou-"

"Carthage?" Aelita proposed.

"Carthage?" Markus puzzled, then punched into the computer to match it with the censored text, "…Yeah, that's it!"

"What is Project Carthage?" Cooke queried.

Odd spread his arms, "You're looking at it! It's Lyoko!"

"Very funny." Cooke deadpanned.

"We'll share some of our information with you. We'll also help you guys decipher the document." Aelita promised. Jeremie turned off the mic.

"Uh, should we really be sharing that kind of information?" Jerremie asked, concerned, "We don't know what they'll do with it."

"Jeremie, it's pretty clear they're smart." Aelita reminded, "They aren't going to misuse it."

"Don't forget, they have a nuclear bomb to defuse in their basement." Ulrich added.

Jeremie turned the mic back on, "We're gonna help. But we can't transfer or receive files without the risk of your little virus worming its way over here."

"I was just about to make that point. We can set up a secure transfer tunnel." Markus agreed, "But we best not screw up to begin with."

"Yeah, it's gonna take a few days." Jeremie bit his lower lip.

"Uh, guys?" William raised, "It's dinner time."

"I'll send you our phone numbers." Markus waved.

The video chat ended.

"Hm." Cooke grunted, "Who would've thought we weren't alone in our escapades?"

"Think we can trust them?" Markus raised an eyebrow.

Cooke nodded, "I don't see why not."


	3. RUN SYSADMIN EXE

Code Matriks

Episode 3: RUN/SYSADMIN. EXE

By B1ockh3d

Author's note: As I expected, I was a week late. I'm NOW going into finals week, and I don't know what's going to happen about the next chapter, it may be a week late like this one. Buuuut, after finals week is summer! More time to work on chapters! Thanks for reading!

Update: I'm not a French speaker, nor do I plan on studying it, so all my French used in this story is through Google Translate. If you do speak/know French and I make a mistake, let me know and I'll fix it!

And to the readers that are confused by what the Lyoko warriors are saying when they speak French, that's kind of the point. Cooke and Markus have no idea what they're saying. They have to figure it out by the context of the situation, or by telling them to knock it off. I could put in the translations, but it would break up the action awkwardly. Don't worry, It won't be something I ride on. If there's a scene that takes place at Kadic/without Cooke and Markus, it'll be in English.

Thanks for understanding.

* * *

The scanner doors opened, and Markus stepped out.

"Man, that was was wild!" Markus remarked.

"Oh, please." Cooke laughed, "You only got scanned. Being virtualized is much wilder!"

Cooke turned back to the computer, and Markus pulled up a chair and took over for him.

"Thanks for walking us through that, Jeremie." Markus thanked.

"No problem!" Jeremie smiled at the camera, "Now you shouldn't be affected by the return trips."

"Yeah, speaking of which," Cooke began, "How come I wasn't affected even though I'm not linked to your computer?"

"I've done a little digging into that, actually." Jeremie pushed his glasses up, "Originally, I thought the computer stored your genetic DNA so it knew who to avoid changing."

"But?"

"But, it's actually the other way around. When you're scanned, you're implanted with code, code that acts like a key to the door of the return trips." Jeremie explained, "And since we confirmed Matriks is based off of Carthage, it's not unreasonable to assume they use the same keys."

"Huh." Markus grunted, "I suppose that would be a lot easier to manage."

"How's that document scanning going?" Cooke asked.

"Slowly." Jeremie answered, "It's taking a lot longer because I don't have the actual file. I've got the super computer translating common words right now."

"I'm hoping to get that secure data tunnel finished with you in the next few days." Markus promised, "We're just gonna have to work around our school schedule."

"Speaking of which," Cooke flashed the time on his phone, 12:30 PM, "We got class in an hour and I haven't eaten yet."

"Alright, alright." Markus waved to Jeremie, "I'll be online at four. Which is... Ten for you."

"Okay. I'll go get dinner until then." Jeremie shrugged, then closed the chat.

* * *

"What's on the agenda today?" Cooke asked Markus as they walked back to their school.

"Lessee..." Markus rubbed his chin, "Mr. Craig is going over heat induction and thermodynamics, Ms. Kalo is covering electromagnetic radiation, and I think that's it?"

"I meant with our new French friends." Cooke clarified.

Markus shrugged, "Jeremie texted me this morning that he wanted to catch us up with them. Apparently there's something called "The Cortex" they need our help with."

"Sounds needlessly complex yet painful." Cooke nodded, "How can we help them?"

"I... Don't know how you get "painful" out of that, but to be honest, I don't know what it is. Or why they need our help, of all people." Markus shrugged.

"Hm." Cooke accepted, "What's on the lunch menu today?"

"Dude, it's the same thing everyday." Markus deadpanned, "We're in college, we have multiple restaurants to choose from."

"Where do you want to go?"

"I could totally kill for some Mexican food right now..."

* * *

Jeremie slid into his seat next to Aelita.

"So, how's our new friends?" Odd opened.

"They're pretty nice. I walked Cooke through how to scan Markus." Jeremie took a bite of mashed potatoes, "Got a little bit more of their document translated."

"Have you told them about the Cortex yet?" Aelita asked.

Jeremie shook his head, "They had to go for lunch. I'm gonna talk about it tonight."

"Remind me, why are we relying on strangers to take out the Cortex _for _us?" Ulrich questioned.

"Because Professor Tyron doesn't know we've booted up our system, and," Jeremie pointed at Aelita, "If we were to step foot on the Cortex, he's going to come back for Aelita and use his parental status to take her away, effectively stopping us for good."

"Using another person from another computer is the best way to confuse Tyron." Aelita expanded.

"So, we won't ever have to go back to the Cortex?! Yahoo!" Odd celebrated, then paused, "But... Isn't Aelita the only person who can open the Cortex?"

Jeremie sat back further into his chair, "Yeah... That's the only thing. Cooke can't open the Cortex doors."

"We'll find a way." Aelita assured, "Unfortunately, this also means I can't see my mother."

Jeremie reached over and grasped Aelita's hand gently, "Hey, don't worry about it. Like you said, we'll find a way."

* * *

"So, lemme get this straight," Cooke paced in the background of Markus' chat with Jeremie over Skype, "This professor, Tyron, is the legal guardian of Aelita, the only person who can open this door you keep talking about?"

"Yeah. Crazy, huh?" Jeremie adjusted his glasses.

"And... How did that happen again?" Cooke begged.

"Professor Tyron married Aelita's mother. It's really not that complicated, Cooke." Markus answered. Cooke rolled his eyes.

"Okay, so, where do we come in?" Cooke sat down in a backwards chair.

"Tyron doesn't know about your computer yet. He knows where ours is, and he doesn't know we've reactivated it." Jeremie continued, "He is expecting us, and when we do attack, he'll come for Aelita. Or worse, shut down his super computer."

"That doesn't sound good." Markus worried.

"No. But, he isn't expecting you. We can control everything remotely through your computer, while Cooke goes and plants the virus to destroy XANA." Jeremie elaborated, "Then, nothing should come back to us."

"Sounds simple enough. Get in, plant the virus, and get out." Markus nodded, "Except for two things."

"Hm?"

"One, you said only Aelita can open the door to the Cortex." Markus pointed out, "And two, it's awfully suspicious that another person who has never stepped foot on the Cortex has the _exact same virus_ to kill the _exact same virus_ it was killing last time he had the virus that he _defeated already._ There's no way it _won't _come back to you guys."

Jeremie nodded, "Don't worry, with all the data we siphoned from his computer, we can tailor make this one differently. It won't be a worm virus."

"Well, then how do you plan to open the Cortex door without Aelita? Hmm?" Cooke snarked.

Jeremie sat back into his chair and scratched his head, "I'm... Still working on that."

"You mean you don't know." Cooke slumped.

"He means it's a work in progress!" Markus barked.

"Alright, alright-"

Jeremie's computer started beeping, "...Uh oh."

"What?" Cooke slipped on his shoes.

"Activated tower." Jeremie bit the walls of his cheek, "On Matriks."

"Fantastic!" Markus threw his hands up in frustration, "Cooke and I will be there in twenty minutes."

"I gotta wake everyone up if they aren't already asleep!" Jeremie informed, "Let me know what's going on as soon as-"

The beeping stopped.

"Huh..." Jeremie scratched his chin.

"What's huh? Fill us in!" Markus requested.

"The tower was deactivated." Jeremie baffled.

Cooke sat down on his bed and sat back, "Great! So nothing to worry about!"

Not a moment later, the tower scan started beeping again.

"Oh god..." Jeremie ran his hands through his hair, "If what I think is happening is happening, this mission is gonna be really annoying."

"What do you think is happening?" Markus concerned.

"This happened before, XANA keeps activating and deactivating the same tower to throw us off, because we can only enter activated towers." Jeremie shook his head, "It was frustrating."

"Well, let's go there for good measure." Cooke recommended. Markus nodded, as well as Jeremie, who then ended the call.

* * *

Cooke landed on the ice world, and scanned the area with his eyes.

"Well... Lots of ice. Still." Cooke commented.

"Interesting..."

"Not really."

"No, no, not you," Markus shook his head, "I'm getting the same kind of fluxing signal from the tower."

"Alright, where is this tower?" Cooke looked around.

"South by southeast."

"Sooo... Left? Right?"

"The path right behind you." Markus directed.

Cooke turned around, and ran through an ice valley.

"How far away is it?" Cooke scanned ahead.

"Not far. Less than five minutes at your current pace." Markus answered.

* * *

"STOP!" Markus yelled into the mic.

Cooke stopped immediately and hid behind a corner, "What's going on?!"

"I can see the tower onscreen, it's still fluxing, but there's a crazy number of monsters outside!" Markus panicked, "I'm counting twenty!"

"Holy!" Cooke peered around the corner, seeing nothing, "Where?!"

"There should be a ledge overlooking the tower about fifteen meters in front of you." Markus advised.

Cooke cautiously walked over to the ledge, and he couldn't believe what he saw.

"Uhh... Now would be a really good time to call Jeremie!"

* * *

Jeremie, Aelita, and Ulrich approached the sewer entrance. Odd and William broke off to go meet with Yumi.

Jeremie's phone started buzzing, it was Markus.

He answered, "What's going on?"

"Cooke, what's going on?" Markus linked his phone to the super computer.

"The tower isn't activating and reactivating," Cooke began, "XANA is trying to activate a tower here on Matriks, and our virus keeps taking over control! The tower is switching from red to orange to red to orange!"

Jeremie turned to everyone and whispered, "XANA and the virus in Matriks keep fighting for control of the tower."

"Ohh, but it gets worse." Markus continued.

"Huh?"

"There's about twenty enemies here!" Cooke yelled in frustration, "Half of them are the mechanical monsters, and the other half are some monsters I've never seen before! But judging by the XANA symbol on them, I think you're familiar with them."

"What are they doing?!" Jeremie and the gang began full on sprinting.

"That's the weirdest part! They're fighting each other!" Cooke shook his head, "I don't think they've even noticed me yet!"

The warriors got to the sewer, "Alright, we still have to get there by Skid. We're maybe thirty minutes away."

"I'm gonna figure out what's going on with that tower." Markus assured.

"I'll be on standby." Cooke went back into hiding.

Jeremie hung up his phone, "The situation is getting weirder by the minute. We gotta hurry!"

Ulrich and Aelita nodded.

* * *

Cooke found a better vantage point. He watched as the mechanical wolves tore apart Krabs one limb at a time, as Tarantulas blasted through the mechanical skeletons, and the mechanical condors and Hornets kept knocking each other out. It was a bizarre experience. All the while, the tower kept switching from red to orange, and orange to red.

"Any luck?" Cooke cocked his head to the right.

"Not yet." Markus shook his head.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" Jeremie called out.

"Oh, hey." Cooke greeted, "Now, I've seen a lot of weird things in my life, and this tops it."

"Have you guys figured out what XANA and your virus are doing?" Aelita spoke over the comm.

"Well, aside from fighting each other and I think they're fighting over the tower control, not really." Markus answered.

"Where are you guys?" Cooke requested.

"We're running to the Skid right now." Aelita informed.

"Skid… That's what you call your ship?" Cooke queried.

"It's short for Skidbladnir." Jeremie smiled, "And it allows us to dive into the digital sea."

"I'm still new to all this, but I'm gonna say that sounds awesome." Cooke nodded.

"Hey... Isn't that the name of a Norse ship?" Markus roughly recalled.

"Very astute." Jeremie complimented.

"How far away are the others?" Ulrich asked.

"They're... Entering the factory." Jeremie peered over at the security camera feed, "I'll send them in when you get to Matriks."

"The more, the merrier." Cooke commented, "The thing is, I don't know if diving into this situation will mean helping a side or fighting both sides."

"Well, if it's helping a side, assume it's not XANA's side." Ulrich advised.

* * *

Aelita and Ulrich dove into the digital sea, they were ten minutes away.

"Any news?" Cooke asked.

"Not yet." Markus answered.

Suddenly, an A.M. radio signal crackled in Markus' headset.

"Mark-US!" Two strung together audio clips played, like they were sampled from two radio shows, "Mark-US!"

"... He... Hello?" Markus replied.

"HELP-us-fight!" Whatever was trying to talk to him was using voice samples from various audio clips, "We-ARE-not-Strong!-enough!"

"Who is this?" Markus queried.

"What's going on, Markus?" Cooke concerned.

"Someone, or something, is trying to talk to me through the radio." Markus zeroed in.

"Huh? Open up the transmission." Jeremie asked.

"We-CALL!-our-sell-zzz-JAER!" It answered, "JAER-JAER-JAER-JAER!"

"Are you the virus in our system?" Cooke requested.

Right then, a mechanical wolf ran up to Cooke. Cooke drew his sword, but noticed the wolf wasn't getting ready to attack.

"COR-RECT!" JAER answered, "DE-activate-Tow-errrr."

Cooke bravely sheathed his sword. "Give me one good reason to!"

"Dude... That is such a stupid request." Markus face-palmed.

"Zah-NAHHH-will-Control!-May-tricks!" JAER warned, "DE-activate-Tow-errrr."

Jeremie's eyes widened, "Deactivate the tower! If XANA worms his way over to your system, he'll gain his full power!"

"Lee-Yoko!" JAER alerted, "DE-fend-Cis-Ad."

"Cissad? What's Cissad?" Ulrich queried.

Aelita stopped the Skid, "Hold on, why would a virus ask for help?"

"It doesn't matter, if XANA takes over, it's over for us and Matriks!" Jeremie pulled at his hair.

Aelita hit max thrusters, and propelled their way to the entrance of Matriks.

* * *

"We're entering now." Aelita informed.

"Great! I can spawn in backup!" Jeremie celebrated.

"Wonderful, great, we need all hands on deck." Cooke peered over.

Cooke's eye twitched, and he noticed he world turned into a grayish hue, and time slowed down a bit, then returned to normal. "...Eh?"

"We're about a minute away from you." Aelita reminded.

Cooke shook his head and un-dazed himself, "Oh, excellent."

Cooke turned away, and reoriented himself, "Man... That was weird."

"What was weird?" Markus pried.

"It... Was nothing. It was probably a computer glitch. We don't know how this computer can mess me up, after all." Cooke shrugged.

"That makes me a little more concerned, what happened?" Markus insisted.

"For a split second, the world went into grayscale for me." Cooke answered, "But it's gone now."

The Skid parked behind a large pillar, and Aelita and Ulrich spawned right in front of Cooke.

"It's about time." Cooke sneered.

"You could've started without us." Ulrich inspected the situation.

"How are we going to deactivate a tower that switches between possessors?" Aelita tilted her head.

"Let's start by defeating XANA's monsters." Yumi chimed in, as she joined in with Odd and William.

"Oh goodie, you're all here." Cooke overlooked the pit of monsters, "I think our best course of acti-"

The world slipped into grayscale, and time slowed down a tiny bit. And now, Cooke saw an invisible figure highlighted, and the figure was slowly moving towards the tower.

William summoned his huge sword, "Disons juste-"

"Stop." Cooke held his hand in from of William.

William looked over and noticed Cooke's eyes weren't blue like they normally were, but orange.

"Êtes-vous... Ҫa va?" William asked.

Cooke blinked, and his eyes turned back to blue, "Ye- What?"

"Ah, désolé," William corrected, "Are you okay?"

Cooke nodded, "Yeah, who has a long ranged weapon?"

"Oo! Oo! I do!" Odd volunteered.

Cooke pointed at a blank space of ice between two Krabs, "Shoot there."

Odd aimed and fired, and it hit something.

A figure started imaging, and it was soon recognizable as evil William.

Everyone but Cooke gasped.

Cooke looked over at William, "Hey, he looks just like you!"

"That's because he _is _just like me." William grouched.

"How did you see him?!" Yumi demanded.

Cooke shrugged, "I don't know."

"Uhh, guys?" Odd pointed down, down to a smoke trail coming towards us.

"_Allez_!" William commanded, and held a battle stance.

Aelita, Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd took off running for cover. Cooke followed, and the smoke trail ended at William, and the smoke turned into the evil William.

"Jeremie?" Cooke begged.

"Oui?"

"You still have a lot to catch us up on."

Yumi looked around the rock we were behind, and saw nothing, "...Tranquillement, allons-y."

"What?" Cooke shook his head.

"Shh..." Odd shushed.

Aelita pushed past Yumi, "Odd, grimper ce rocher."

Odd nodded, and climbed up the rock we were hiding behind.

"Can you guys please keep it English?" Markus asked, "Sorry, it's just a little hard to keep up with you guys."

"Déso- er, sorry." Aelita apologized.

"Its fine, continue." Cooke encouraged.

"Ulrich, give William support." Aelita directed.

Ulrich huffed, but ran off towards the two Williams.

"Jeremie, can you send us the Overwing?" Yumi requested.

"Coming..." Jeremie trailed, and an oblong hover scooter appeared in front of the two girls, who hopped on and flew to the other side of the pit.

"Uhh... Can I have one too?" Cooke looked around awkwardly.

"Just stay there, we'll have the situation under control." Jeremie advised.

"So... What am I here for?" Cooke threw his hands up.

"Backup!" Ulrich called out.

"Basically nothing... Gotcha."

"BACKUP!" Ulrich shouted.

Cooke looked around the corner, and saw Ulrich pushing back evil William's large blade with both of his katanas, and slowly being pushed back. It was pretty clear the real William was already devirtualized.

Cooke drew his sword, and ran headlong towards the battle. He swung at William's blade, and turned it into a whip as the short sword made contact, and effectively wrapping the whip blade around the large sword. He pulled back, pulling the blade away from Ulrich, who quickly drew back and lunged at the evil clone, who then exploded.

Ulrich picked himself up, "Phew... You're pretty crafty with that thing."

Cooke retracted his sword and sheathed it, "Yeah... Not bad for my third day here."

"Guys, take out the squad of five Hornets incoming." Jeremie commanded.

"I should really get a popcorn machine down here." Markus pondered out loud.

"Dessus, Jeremie." Ulrich sprinted up the same rock Odd was perched on, and jumped out into the squadron of flying insects, taking out two.

Cooke drew his sword, and whipped it up wards, hitting another two. Leaving one left.

Ulrich regrouped with Cooke, and watched as the Hornet turned back around.

"You got him?" Cooke asked.

"Yeah." Ulrich drew one of his swords, and started running towards the pest.

And then it exploded.

Ulrich stopped, and looked up at Odd, "Hey!"

"Quel?" Odd smirked while shrugging sarcastically.

Odd slid down the rock into the bowl of enemies, and Ulrich joined.

"Markus," Cooke started, "What's going on down there?"

"Uhh..." Markus analyzed the map of the area, "...XANA is getting creamed."

"Okay, good." Cooke nodded, "Jeremie, how do you deactivate towers?"

"Aelita or Yumi has to step in the tower and ascend to the top to reach the tower control panel," Jeremie elaborated, "However, I don't think it's going to be that easy."

"How so?" Yumi chimed in.

"Well, you guys can deactivate Lyoko towers and Replika towers controlled by XANA, but we aren't technically on a Replika, nor is the tower only controlled by XANA." Jeremie explained.

"Sooo..." Odd trailed.

"We have to play it by ear." Jeremie shrugged.

Aelita jumped off the Overwing into the pit, and activated her wings. She flew down, and took out two Krabs. Leaving a Tarantula, a Krab, and two Kankrelats remaining.

"Presque claire, Jeremie." She informed.

Yumi swooped low, throwing a fan at the Tarantula and jumping off the Overwing, set to crash into the last Krab. The fan missed, but the Overwing hit. Ulrich jumped from above on top of the Tarantula, stabbing both of his sabers into the center of the XANA symbol.

As he hopped off, the two Kankrelats took advantage of the now unarmed warrior and fired on him, nailing him in the chest and head, instantly devirtualizing him.

Odd winced, "Ooo... Que ça va laissera une marque!"

"You guys got em?" Cooke requested.

Right then, two shots came from overhead and took them out. The four of them looked up, and saw two mecha-skeletons atop their own mecha-wolves, with their laser guns pointing where the two Kankrelats once stood. They despawned their guns, and rode away.

"As cool as mecha-skeletons with laser guns sound, they're a lot scarier up close." Odd commented.

"It just seems strange to me how a virus wants help." Aelita pondered, "The only time XANA needed our help was to replace the batteries."

"Well, there's your answer." Markus figured, "Self-preservation. JAER isn't a strong virus, and XANA would've surely wiped it clean."

Aelita nodded, "I suppose. But, something feels off about JAER."

"Yo, guys," Cooke waved his hands and pointed at the color-changing tower, "Tower? Deactivate?"

"Right." Aelita straightened, and ran into the tower. She ascended to the top, and placed her right hand on the control surface.

ERROR: UNAUTHORIZED USER

"Uhh… There's something wrong!" Aelita shouted, "I can't deactivate the tower!"

"Try it when the tower is red!" Cooke suggested, "Which is… Now!"

Aelita tried again.

ERROR: UNAUTHORIZED USER

"It says I'm not authorized!" Aelita kept tapping the surface with no avail.

"Drat, hm." Jeremie sat back, "Perhaps… Yeah. It's like I was saying. It's not a Replika or entirely XANA controlled. You don't have the "key" to deactivate towers because you weren't scanned to Matriks."

"But, didn't you say the system was built off of Project Carthage, and used the same keys?" Markus reminded.

"No, the return to the pasts use the same keys because they use identical "pulses" and software." Jeremie clarified, "In this case, it comes down to the hardware and software of Matriks."

"…Huh?" Odd grunted.

"Hardware?" Yumi puzzled.

"The scanners, guys." Jeremie answered, "The scanners for Lyoko-"

"Jeremie, this is great, we need to learn more about our super computers, but we're wasting time. Can I deactivate the tower?" Cooke interrupted.

"Uhp- In theory, yeah." Jeremie nodded, "If it works, I'll finish explaining."

"Just tell me how." Cooke hurried.

Aelita walked out of the tower, "Just walk to the center of the platform in there, stand still, and let the tower lift you up."

"Alright." Cooke walked up to the tower, and placed his hands all over it, "Uhh, how do I get in?"

"Concentrate on wanting into the tower, and it'll suck you in." Yumi answered.

"That would sound weird on a normal day, but this isn't normal." Cooke shook his head, placed both hands on the tower and closed his eyes in concentration, "Let me in…"

And he was sucked in.

"Woah!" Cooke picked himself up, "That was a weird feeling…"

"Center of the platform!" Odd ordered.

"I'm on it, I'm on it." Cooke sighed. He stood in the center of the tower, and rose up to a platform above, "He-hey! That was pretty cool!"

A panel appeared in front of him.

"There should be a panel in front of you. Do you see it?" Jeremie guided.

"Yeah."

"Put your hand on it."

Cooke placed his hand on the screen, and the screen remained blank.

Then a moment later, the screen initialized.

…SYSADMIN…

"It worked!"

…CODE

"What's the code?!" Cooke panicked.

"L-Y-O-K-O!" Odd answered.

Cooke punched it in.

…ERROR: INCORRECT

"That didn't work!"

"If your guys' is Lyoko, then maybe ours is Matriks." Markus deduced.

Cooke punched in M-A-T-R-I-K-S.

…Nothing

"I… Don't think it worked." Cooke slumped, "…Oh!"

The panels of binary code began falling down to the bottom of the tower, then came shooting back up.

On the outside, the tower went from switching between orange and red, to the floating pieces retracting and becoming a solid black tower.

* * *

"Tower deactivated, woo!" Cooke stuck his fists up in the air as he exited the tower. Odd gave him a pat on the back.

"You're officially one of us!" Odd congratulated.

"Nahh, I gotta learn French first!" Cooke joked.

Yumi punched him in the shoulder, "Alright _Akio_, let's get out of here."

Aelita, Odd, and Yumi devirtualized.

"Uhh..." Cooke trailed.

"I can bring you in now, don't worry." Markus promised.

"Oh, good." Cooke smiled, as he was devirtualized.

* * *

The scanner doors opened, and out came Cooke patting his body down.

"Didja lose something on Matriks?" Markus remarked.

"No, it just… Every time I go there, it's literally an out-of-body experience." Cooke steadied his head with his hands, "The return trip feels like waking up, but… Like… Waking up from a short half nap while… Listening to your teacher in the middle of class. And… Taking an energy shot at the same time that depletes immediately."

"Oh man, you are out of it." Markus helped him over to the computer.

"You get used to it." William chimed over the speakers.

"So, Einstein, if you're okay with me calling you that?" Cooke asked.

"I have no problems with that." Jeremie smirked.

"Continue with your long-winded explanation of something the readers already figured out a while ago." Cooke sat back.

"Uh, what?" Jeremie queried. Odd laughed in the background.

"Just- finish what you were saying earlier!" Cooke hurried.

"Right! The scanners were built differently, therefore, they had to be programmed differently. One the many keys there are in the system is one that recognizes a person that came through the Matriks scanner. This one person specifically the system administrator." Jeremie pushed his glasses up, "That would be you, Cooke."

"...Oh!" Ulrich facepalmed, "Cissad... Sys ad... System admin. JAER told us how to deactivate the tower!"

"Okay, Jeremie, what does this mean?" Markus asked.

"To modify anything in Matriks, you need to be a system admin." Jeremie simplified. Everyone except Aelita exhaled, finally understanding him, "Meaning only Cooke can deactivate the towers on Matriks."

"Ugh," Cooke grunted, "I am the wrong person to be the system admin."

"I think it was first come, first serve. Sorry bro." Markus shrugged, "I think I can find a backdoor in case Cooke can't make it. Or worse."

"That would be an excellent backup plan." Aelita agreed.

"Okay, I have another question," Cooke began, "How did I see invisible things?"

Markus turned around to face Cooke, "I know this one! I looked into your profile for once, you have a power called Extrasensory. It allows you to see and decipher objects that shouldn't be there."

"In English?"

"You can see invisible objects, bad guys, or anything that shouldn't be there. Like false walls, and false people." Markus clarified.

Cooke nodded, impressed, and grabbed his coat from the back of his chair, "Well, that was a fun day. I'm going to take a nap. In my bed."

Cooke went up the spiral staircase, and left. Markus redirected his attention towards the computer, "Okay guys, is there anything he and I should know about XANA?"

Everyone looked at each other, brainstorming.

"Absolutely." William nodded, and it seemed everyone in that room knew what he was talking about, "The other William."

"There's two of you?" Markus puzzled.

"Oui. There's a XANAfied version of me on Lyoko. I was taken by XANA, and brainwashed for several months serving him. As you can see, I'm free now." William relieved.

"XANA… _Took_ you?" Markus worried, "How?"

"There's a XANA controlled monster we call the Scyphozoa, which is capable of altering and controlling your brain." Jeremie sulked, "You'll know it when you see it."

"I take it that it looks like a jellyfish?" Markus assumed. They all nodded. "Got it."

"That's really the only big thing you need to be wary of. Don't let it get near you, or Cooke." William finished.

"I'll keep that in mind." Markus acknowledged, "One last thing, Jeremie, can you refine the search in the censored document for words in sequence with the letters J, A, E, and R?"

"I've had it searching for JAER since it contacted you." Jeremie contently smiled, "Nothing yet."

"Okay then, keep me posted." Markus accepted, "Meeting adjourned. Go home, it's like… Midnight for you guys. You craaaazy kids shouldn't be out so late!"

They all waved, and Jeremie ended the chat.


	4. Unlocked Tower

Code Matriks

Episode 4: Unlocked Tower

By B1ockh3d

Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry it's so late! Between finals and a couple of other things, it's been a crazy past couple of weeks. I made this chapter a bit shorter than I wanted to, but I mostly did it so I have enough time to write and post the next chapter before San Diego Comic Con, which I will be attending! Read on!

* * *

Cooke's phone alarm went off. He reached from under his blanket and shut it off, then brought it to his face.

Saturday, 9:00 AM

"Mmm... On the dot." He grunted.

Cooke threw off his blankets and crawled out of bed. He walked over to the small coffee machine in his shared room, that he relabeled "Mr. Hot Chocolate" because that's all it was used for. He popped in a small hot chocolate container into the machine and rested a disposable coffee cup under the spout. He turned on the machine, and turned around, where he found Markus keeled over in front of his laptop, sleeping on his fist that was propping him up.

"Third day in a row." Cooke nodded. "Nnnnaturally."

He walked over to Markus, and shook him a little. It didn't do anything.

"Hey!" Cooke snapped his finger next to Markus' ear, "Markus!"

Still nothing.

Cooke crossed his arms in thought, "Hmm..."

Cooke grinned, opened the blinds looked out, "OH MY GOD! MARKUS! GET UP! THE FEDS ARE HERE!"

Markus jolted awake, and tore out the flash drive in his computer, "QUICK! THE VENT!"

Cooke laughed, "Chill! No Feds. I'm kidding."

Markus grabbed a pillow from his bed, which was above Cooke's, and threw it at him, "Jerk! Don't prey on my paranoia!"

Cooke caught the pillow, "Sorry! But man, how long have you been asleep?"

Markus put on his glasses and looked at the clock on his desk, "Uhh... Two hours."

"You're kidding me!" Cooke lectured, "You've been at that stupid data tunnel for four days now!"

"And it'll be done..." Markus opened a mini fridge under their desk, and pulled out an energy drink, "...In about three cans."

"I don't understand how you can operate." Cooke shook his head.

"With caffeine and sugar." Markus popped open the can.

"That's not healthy for you. A person needs their sleep!" Cooke pounded Markus' bed, "Your bed misses you! It says it's cold and lonely without you!"

"When a man can safely transfer files between two super computers with two super viruses floating about, then I will sleep!" Markus plugged the flash drive back in his computer, and continued his work.

"Unbelievable. It's like you never stopped." The coffee machine finished, and Cooke sprinkled in some cinnamon sugar and mixed it together.

"I'll sleep a full night tonight, okay?!" Markus promised.

"You better, we got a test coming up on Tuesday and it's been proven zombie Markus sucks at tests." Cooke reminded.

Right then, Markus' laptop started ringing. It was Jeremie on Skype.

Cooke checked his phone, 9:03 AM. "They must've just gotten out."

"…On Saturday?"

"Oh, right."

Markus answered the call, "Hey Jeremie. I'll be done in about three hours."

"Excellent. I just finished our end. We just need to combine the codes when you're done." Jeremie informed.

"Quick question," Cooke posed, "How exactly are we going to exchange this data for exchanging data if we have no current base to exchange data?"

"Oh, you didn't tell him yet?" Jeremie directed at Markus.

"He's always been asleep when I get back to the dorm." Markus shrugged.

"Dude, you texted me to bring you dinner to the lab last night, at a time Jeremie was probably sleeping. You couldn't tell me _then_?!" Cooke complained.

"Oh, yeah, huh…"

Cooke waved his hands, "Whatever, whatever. What is this news that Markus failed to bestow upon me?"

"You're coming to Lyoko to activate the tower in Sector Five, and open a direct access port between computers, but only for about thirty seconds." Jeremie explained, "That's a safe amount of time to have an unsecure tunnel open."

"And in this time we can transfer the data." Cooke nodded, "I see."

"Aelita and Odd will come to Matriks to pick you up in the Skid, bring you to Lyoko, do your thing, and then you go home." Jeremie smiled, "Les doigts dans le nez!"

"I don't know what you said, but I do know it's not gonna go that smoothly, I guarantee you." Cooke laughed.

* * *

Cooke fell on to the icy world, nailing the landing.

"Hey Markus, how are you feeling?" Cooke grinned.

"Ughhh... Just finish the mission before I throw up all over this nice mainframe." Markus groaned.

"No sleep, endless energy drinks, what did you expect to happen?" Cooke lectured, "You're a mess."

"We're here by a tower, if you're done lecturing Markus, Cooke." Aelita alerted.

"Right, right. Where is it?"

"North by northeast." Markus answered.

"Soooo..."

"The path to your right."

"Thank you. I'll be there in a minute, Aelita."

Cooke ran to the Skid, a little excited to get in one of their spore-looking pods.

"Uhh, Jeremie?" Aelita posed, "How do we get him into the Skid?"

"Oh, uh," Jeremie paused, "We can transfer him manually."

"Will that screw things up on our end?" Markus asked.

"It shouldn't."

"Alright, transfer me in then!"

Nobody did anything.

"Uhh... Jeremie, anytime now?" Cooke shook his hands.

"Ohhh sorry, Aelita has to do it." Jeremie bumbled.

"Eh? Que?" Aelita peered down at Cooke.

"Hold down the transfer buttons, and select him on screen." Jeremie explained.

She held down a combination of buttons, and highlighted Cooke's figure.

"Transfer." Aelita transferred Cooke. He spawned inside the wild looking pod.

"Wow... This is a work of art." Cooke admired.

"Wait till you see the sea!" Odd laughed, "Hopefully we'll see some fishies!"

"For our sake, let's hope not." Aelita shook her head.

She dove into the digital sea

* * *

"Y'know, it's really weird to be sideways, but my back is still sticking to the seat of the pod." Cooke noted.

"No kidding." Odd commented, while being in the pod that was attached to the underside.

"How am I going to get around to the Cortex without the Skid?" Cooke queried.

"We've actually been working on that." Jeremie smirked, "We can't send you in with a copy of the Skid, it'd give us away. We're making an all new one, a one seater, just for you to get to the Cortext."

"That's... Very proactive!" Cooke understood.

The sea shifted from blue to red, alerting Aelita, "...We have two Kongre eels inbound!"

"Ooo! Lemme at em!" Odd begged.

Aelita targeted them, and fired, successfully hitting both.

"Aww..." Odd groaned.

"Well... That was easy." Cooke looked around, "Why is the sea still red?"

Odd and Aelita looked around, seeing nothing.

"Don't Kongres come in groups of three?" Odd queried.

"There's nothing on radar..."

Cooke looked up and saw a giant toothy fish with bulging eyes, "JESUS CHRIST WHAT IS THAT?!"

"Trouvé!" Odd quipped.

"Odd, can you go help-"

"Oui!"

Aelita detached Odd's pod, who circled around to Cooke to shoot the terrifying thing off of him, only for it to swim away.

"Aww... Don't be like that!" Odd chased after it, firing bolts across its gills.

This went on for about a minute, before he nailed the fish, and the sea turned back to blue. He docked back onto the Skid.

"You good, man?" Markus concerned.

"I'm fine." Cooke exhaled, "It scared the bejesus out of me though."

"We're coming up on Lyoko." Aelita informed.

Cooke looked out and saw the monolithic world, "...Nice."

"Nice? That's all you can say about it?" Markus laughed.

"Well yeah, ours is bigger on the outside." Cooke smirked.

"I don't think you're in the position to be comparing sizes, just saying."

"Hey now-"

The door to Lyoko opened up, and Aelita transformed the Skid into the upright position and steered inside.

Cooke looked upwards at a giant gray sphere with data tunnels spewing out of it, "Lemme guess, this is Sector Five?"

"Yep!" Odd gazed.

"Impressive." Cooke nodded.

"Oh, _now _it's impressive?" Markus chimed.

"Oh, shut it!" Cooke rolled his eyes.

* * *

The trio spawned on the pads of the docking bay.

Cooke awed at the place, "Man... And there's _four more_ sectors?!"

"Well, normally." Jeremie glanced at the holomap, "We lost two of them. All we have are the mountain and desert sectors."

"Hm." Cooke grunted, "So, where is the tower?"

"Elevator, this way." Aelita led. Cooke and Odd followed in tow.

* * *

They stepped off the elevator, and walked down a short path to the non-active tower.

"Will I be able to get in while its deactivated?" Cooke posed.

"Yeah. It's the only tower in Sector Five, and also the Way tower." Jeremie elaborated, "You can enter the Way tower anytime. Only regular towers you can enter while they're activated."

"Okay, good to know." Cooke accepted.

Cooke walked up to the tower and entered. He ascended to the top, and a panel popped up in front of him.

"Okay... This isn't one of our towers." Cooke pointed out, "I can't access it."

"Hold on!" Jeremie gleefully smiled, "Sending you the security bypass!"

A blue keycard-looking thing appeared in front of Cooke. He grabbed it, and placed it on the panel. The panel flickered for a moment, then reset.

"Okay, now what Einstien?"

"Put your hand on the panel."

Cooke put his hand on the panel, and Aelita's name popped up, then the screen flickered some more.

"What... Did you do?" Cooke waited for the panel to stop shaking.

"I tricked the tower into thinking you were Aelita." Jeremie sat back.

"Then why didn't we just use Aelita?" Markus queried.

"Give it a moment."

Suddenly, Aelita's name switched to SYSADMIN, then to CODE.

Cooke punched in MATRIKS.

The tower activated, glowing a brilliant blue.

"It worked!" Aelita called out.

Jeremie looked over at the tower scanner, and saw there was an indication for an activated tower, as there should be.

"Alright, opening up a channel." Cooke announced.

Markus watched the screen, and saw a notice indicating a network opening. He established the connection, "Alright... Sending you the files."

Markus sent the files over to Jeremie without any issues, "Fantastique! Sever the connection!"

Cooke logged out and left the tower, which returned to its normal state, "Well... This was remarkably boring."

"We can go out and pick fights with random monsters if that cheers you up!" Odd suggested.

"Nah, just, Markus, bring me home." Cooke requested.

"Alrighty, gimme a second."

Cooke waved at Aelita and Odd as he slowly disintegrated, "Later!"

Aelita and Odd also devirtualized.

* * *

Aelita and Odd were joined by Ulrich in the computer room.

"Everything go well?" Ulrich peered.

Jeremie nodded, then looked back over at the tower scanner, which still showed an activated tower, "Uhh... Maybe not."

"What's wrong?" Aelita pulled herself behind Jeremie.

"The tower scanner still shows an activated tower!" Jeremie frantically localized it, "...It's in Sector Five!"

"You mean... The tower we just _left_?" Odd placed both of his hands over his face, "Unbelievable... Aelita and I can't go back for twelve hours!"

"Then we'll have to find Yumi and get her to deactivate the tower." Aelita pulled out her phone.

"Wait, what if its residual?" Jeremie pondered, "Maybe the tower scanner is still thinking the tower is still active from Cooke?"

"It's possible." Aelita held, "...But let's not risk it. I'll text Yumi."

* * *

Cooke closed the trapdoor to the super computer, and shut the closet.

"Hey, I have some new ideas for our robot." Cooke proposed.

"Oh? What were you thinking?" Markus raised.

"Instead of motion sensors, we should use laser sensors. Far more accurate."

"Yeah, but far more expensive-"

_MMMMM MMMMM MMMMM!_

Markus' phone buzzed. He picked it up, "Hey Remy, what's happening?"

"Hey, uhh, where do you keep the program backup drives?"

"Top cabinet, second to the right, lower shelf."

"Oh, good. Good. How recently did you back up our work?"

"Yesterday when we cleaned up."

"Okay... That's not too bad. We didn't change a whole lot anyways."

"...What's going on, Remy?"

"I think... Uhh... Actually I don't know, but I think our system was hacked- er, it's _being _hacked, and we lost all of our work."

Markus stopped walking to the door, and stopped Cooke, "Wait, we're being _hacked_?"

Cooke looked at Markus in horror. Markus put it on speaker.

"Well, the whole school is being affected. All the school computers are flashing through all the student records I believe?"

"What else?!" Cooke frantically pulled out his phone and opened his Twitter.

"Uhm... There's this target-looking thing that's flashing on some of the screens."

"Can you describe it?" Markus coaxed, hoping not to hear what he thinks he's going to hear.

"It's like a target... Mixed with a peace sign? It's like a regular target, has a little line at the top and three little lines at the bottom."

Cooke nudged Markus, and showed him his phone. It was a picture of a WSU student's computer showing XANA's symbol. Exactly what Markus was hoping _not _to see.

"Uhh okay, I'm sure IT is on it, don't worry, we still have all of our backups. Listen, unplug and lock away any robots that might be out. And I mean _lock _them, not just tie a cabinet door closed with a wire hanger."

"Will do!" Remy hung up.

"Back to the computer?" Cooke pointed.

"Ohhh yeah." Markus furiously nodded.

* * *

They watched the activated tower warning, waiting for it to turn off. Or rather, praying it turns off.

"I haven't found any local attacks, not even a spectre." Jeremie observed, "Perhaps XANA isn't attacking."

"Yumi's on her way." Aelita put her phone away.

"Excellent. I... Should probably contact Cooke and Markus." Jeremie suggested.

Right then, a window popped up showing Markus and Cooke behind their super computer.

"Eh, parler du diables." Jeremie greeted.

"Lemme guess," Markus began, "Activated tower?"

"Nothing over here." Aelita filled in.

"Yeah, well-" Cooke shoved his phone up to the camera, showing the picture of the infected computer, "-there's something over here."

Jeremie pulled up all the social media activity in the WSU area, and found many pictures of XANA controlled computers. "Good god, what's going on over there?!"

Markus shrugged, "We were kind of hoping you'd help us figure that out."

"Our robotics teammate said all the student profiles were being flashed through." Cooke elaborated.

"He's looking for you guys!" Jeremie panicked.

Markus calmly nodded, "Look, Cooke is locked out for another twelve hours. Is there anything you guys can do?"

"We have Yumi coming, and she's the only other person that can deactivate towers." Aelita took over Jeremie's seat in front of the super computer.

"Alright, I'm gonna head to the school and figure out what XANA _really _wants." Cooke grabbed Markus' laptop and shoved it in his own bag, "This is an awful lot of effort just to find our student records."

"Hook me in when you get there." Markus waved. Cooke left.

* * *

Cooke busted through the entrance of the computer sciences building, and held his phone to his ear, "Alright, I'm in the building."

"You know where IT is?" Markus coordinated.

"Yeah, it's basement level." Cooke ran downstairs and around the corner, and found a few adults huddled around the door to the server room, "Hey! What's going on?"

"Don't touch the door!" One of the adults warned, "It's electrified!"

"There's someone inside!" Another panicked.

Cooke looked through the window, and saw a man squatting in the center of the room, surrounded by servers. The computer screens behind him also flashed XANA's symbol.

Cooke picked up his phone again, "So, bad news. You-know-who locked and booby trapped the door with the IT guy inside. Any ideas?"

Markus sat back, "Hmm... Does he have a smartphone?"

"Isn't it reasonable to assume the computers are electrified too?"

"Well, only if XANA wanted to fry his chances of doing whatever he's doing."

"Ah." Cooke went up to the window, "Hey! You got a smartphone?!"

The man nodded, and showed it to Cooke.

"Alright Markus, he has one."

"Tell him to plug it into a server and open my laptop, I'll take it from there." Markus explained.

Cooke opened Markus' laptop and peered through the window again, "Plug your phone into a server!"

The man opened a cabinet and grabbed a cable, then plugged his phone into a server rack.

"...I got a connection!" Markus strided.

"Excellent! Think you can get him out of there?" Cooke queried.

"I think I can short out the electronic locks XANA's using, but only for a few seconds." Markus shrugged.

"Do it." Cooke backed everyone away from the door, and peered through the window again, "I'm gonna get you out! Get ready to dash out the door!"

"How are you going to do that?!" Another adult asked. Cooke just shook a finger towards Markus' laptop next to the door.

Cooke picked up his phone, "We're ready."

"Alright... Activating short circuit... Now!"

Cooke watched the RFID scanner's LED switch from red to off, quickly opened the door and got the man out, and the door instantly shut and locked.

"Cooke, I lost the connection!"

"What?!"

The man Cooke just rescued handed him a USB cable he slipped under the door, "I figure you need this?"

"It's all good Markus, gimme a sec." Cooke plugged the cable into the laptop and let it go.

"Excellent!" Markus cheered over the phone.

"Woo... I'll make my way back soon."

"Alright. Yumi just made it onto Lyoko, it should be resolved soon."

"Fantastic. We're gonna need to do one of those thingies that fixes all of this mess."

"Yeah, I know."

"Okay, later." Cooke hung up.

The IT guy looked in awe, "How did... What's going on?!"

"A very nasty virus broke into the school network. My buddy'll have it fixed." Cooke nonchalantly leaned against the wall, "This one in particular is especially nasty, but my friend specializes in it."

"What's it going after?"

Cooke shrugged, "Who knows."

* * *

Yumi's fan sliced through the last Creeper, clearing the pathway to the tower.

"After you!" Ulrich ushered.

"Don't mind if I do." Yumi chuckled, and entered the tower.

"Thanks for saving out skins, guys." Markus thanked over the comm.

"Saving you guys is saving us." Aelita reminded, "But we're more than happy to help!"

Jeremi came back to the seat behind the computer, "Hey, I think I figured out what XANA is doing!"

"Go on." Markus hurried.

"He's making a Replika with your school's servers!"

Markus let out a deep laugh, "There's no way! The servers aren't powerful enough to sustain a whole virtual sector!"

"No, but to make a small island with only a tower on it? It's more than possible." Jeremie elaborated, "If he can do that, he'll have access to you guys in the real world."

"Then- Yumi!"

"I'm putting in the code!" Yumi rolled her eyes, "...Alright, tower deactivated."

Markus and Jeremie both quickly checked social media sites to see if anyone was hurt.

"...I don't see anything major."

"I think you're clear." Jeremie tapped away at his keyboard, "Return to the past now!"

* * *

The hot chocolate machine sputtered, indicating it was done. Once again, it was 9:02 A.M., and Cooke was waking up as Markus was behind his computer.

"Man... I'm glad we don't have to do that crap again." Cooke sat down, sprinkling cinnamon into his hot chocolate, "That stuff was boring. Didn't see any action!"

"No, no, you saw a fish! Remember?" Markus laughed.

"That was terrifying! That big toothy... Thing!" Cooke exasperated.

Markus reached over to the mini-fridge for an energy drink, "...Hey! It's magically restocked itself!"

"Those things are not healthy for you, man." Cooke disapproved.

"Dude, fighting a super virus on a computer powered by a nuke isn't healthy." Markus laughed, "Speaking of which..."

Cooke peered over Markus' shoulder.

"...XANA wasn't successful!" Markus thrusted his fists up, "Our school servers were not turned into a Replika!"

"Phew!" Cooke relaxed, "So JAER is still our problem, and XANA is still their problem."

"And it's a lot easier to work together now!" Markus eased.

"Maybe now you can get off your caffeine high and get some sleep tonight." Cooke patted Markus' bed.

Markus rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah."


	5. Breathe In (Part 1)

Code Matriks

Episode 5: Breathe In (Part 1)

By B1ockh3d

Author's note: I decided to release this one a week early, in an attempt to repair my original schedule. But due to the time constraints of San Diego Comic Con, I will not be uploading the next chapter next week. It'll be the Monday after. But without further adue, read on!

* * *

Ulrich sliced a leg off of a Tarantula, then stabbed it right in the center of the XANA symbol, "That makes four, Odd!"

Odd arrowed down a hornet, "Now we're tied again!"

"Can you guys be a little less careless?!" Jeremie scolded, "You're both down to twenty life points!"

"Cool it, Einstien we're-" Odd got shot in the back by a Krab, devirtualizing him.

Ulrich drove up behind the Krab in the Overbike, jumping off and slicing it down the center, destroying it, "Five! I win!"

Aelita swooped in gracefully with her wings, and entered the activated tower.

"XANA played some real hardball today." William exhaled, "What did he do to you guys?"

"He turned all the traffic lights green, attempting to trap us in traffic on our field trip." Jeremie reminded, then spun his chair around, "And nice work you two."

"We tried our best to do it on our own." Yumi shrugged.

"But you sent yourselves there and cleared half the monsters waiting for us." Jeremie thanked.

The elevator doors opened, and there was Odd.

"What did I tell you about being careless?" Jeremie sassed.

"It wouldn't have happened if you didn't distract me." Odd glared.

"Tower deactivated!" Aelita announced.

"Alright, it's a shame we have to go back in time." Jeremie poked away at the keyboard, "...Return to the past now."

* * *

Cooke and Markus threw off their sheets simultaneously.

Cooke checked his phone, just to be sure they went back in time, "It's seven... We should really get Jeremie to give us some forewarning."

"At least I get another stab at that pop quiz." Markus accepted, "And now I won't be surprised there's a pop quiz."

"I kinda wish we got a chance to go to the lab at least." Cooke complained, "This sucked... Our school day ended and now we're doing it all over again."

"But we'll do it better!" Markus optimistically jumped off the top bunk, "Don't you want another chance at winning Mario Kart during lunch?"

"Nah, I think I'll skip it this time. I've got a date with an EFX 1000 to repair." Cooke pointed to a disassembled machine on his desk.

"Ah, very good. You can finally get through the growing pile of junk on your side of the desk." Markus kicked a midi keyboard sticking out from under his desk.

"Hey, I resent my pile of junk!" Cooke rolled his eyes, "It's good engineering practice!"

"I don't deny that, I just wished you practiced better organization." Markus pulled out an energy drink from the mini fridge.

"I wish you'd practice better nutrition." Cooke nagged.

"Blah blah blah... Neither of us are getting our wish." Markus chuckled, "Alright man, I'm gonna go hit the showers AGAIN, and I'll see you in Programming at eleven."

"Later." Cooke waved, and got out of bed.

* * *

Markus and Cooke finished their classes for the day, and headed down a short road to their lab. Markus called Jeremie and put it on speaker.

"Bonjour." Jeremie greeted.

"Bond-joor." Cooke laughed, "So, what was that thing about?"

"Our old pal put the entire city into gridlock, trapping us in traffic." Jeremie explained, "He put up quite a fight too."

"Ah, we would've helped!" Markus chipped in.

"It wasn't a big deal. He isn't your guy's problem, he's ours." Jeremie nodded, "Well, until we have to get you onto the Cortex."

"That'll be a fun experience." Cooke laughed.

"How long has it been since your last attack?" Markus asked.

"Three weeks and a day, that was the attack on you guys." Jeremie reminded, "Or rather, your school."

"Man, this time has been so relaxing." Cooke reminisced, "It's been over a week since our pal's last data attack."

"How much data is he at?"

"Sixty-five percent." Markus answered.

"Aieee... What's your plan for stopping it?"

"That's the weird part, we need to-"

Cooke halted and put his hand in front of Markus, stopping him.

"...We need to hang up and call back." Cooke abruptly finished, and hit the end call button.

"Dude, what-"

Cooke pointed to the entrance of their small building, which had four black government SUVs parked outside and the front door was wide open.

"...Oh no. Oh no no no." Cooke calmly panicked, "They found it."

Markus didn't flinch, "Let's go see what's going on."

They approached their lab cautiously, and saw a man outside with an AR-15 guarding the door.

Markus and Cooke quickly got out their wallets and Washington drivers licenses, and walked up to the man with both hands forward clearly showing their identification.

"Sirs, please turn around and leave, this area-"

"We're the students who work here." Markus talked, knowing Cooke would crack.

The agent glanced at a clipboard near him, and their IDs. He leaned over to his radio, "I have a mister Cooke and mister Edwards, a white male and a black male, claiming to be the benefactors."

A click was heard on his radio, "Keep them there, Juliet will see them shortly."

Momentarily, the same well-suited agent that assisted them in signing the contracts came out, "Yes, that's them."

The man eased up on his machine gun, Cooke and Markus put away their IDs and dropped their hands.

"We would like to take a look through your closet, and luckily, we don't need to drill out the locks anymore." she ushered the duo inside.

"All that's in there is dust, and spare parts." Markus shrugged, "But if you drove all the way here to see our closet, be our guest."

Right then, Cooke's laptop in his backpack started ringing, indicating an activated tower. "Of all the times!"

Agent Juliet panned over to Cooke, staring with a knowing, yet eerie intent. "Of all the times... For what?"

"For... A Skype call!" Cooke improvised. Markus made no eye contact, and remained with a poker face, "It's probably my parents... On their lunch break... It's like noon-thirty on the west coast right now."

Markus reached into his pocket subtly, pried the back of his phone off and the battery, and pulled out the keys to the closet, "We're sorry. Closet time?"

Agent Juliet switched between eye contact between the two boys, ultimately settling on Cooke. This made him uncomfortable, but he knew it was a scare tactic, and a surprisingly good one too. "...Yes. Unlock it."

Markus unlocked the door, and opened it up all the way. Agent Juliet stepped inside and looked amongst the shelves, moving things around.

Cooke positioned himself slightly in front of Markus, concealing a good portion of his face to the other agents searching the rest of the lab.

"We don't want your _mother _calling, remove the battery." Markus whispered, "Don't worry, I got this."

Cooke looked around inconspicuously, and when he saw the other agents looking away, he slipped his hand in his pocket and shut off his phone.

"What's this?" Agent Juliet moved aside a mop bucket on wheels, revealing the RFID scanner.

"No idea." Markus shrugged, "We found it when we were cleaning the place out, we figured you'd have a better idea."

"So... That was not installed by you guys?" Juliet pressed. They both shook their heads in unison.

"We're thinking it's a safe." Cooke added. Markus nodded lightly in agreement.

"Then you won't mind us opening it?" Another agent went in the room carrying a laptop with a credit card sized device plugged into it.

Markus shook his head, "Not at all."

Agent Juliet cocked her head, and stared down Cooke again, "I assume by your silence, you're okay with us looking?"

"Uhh, not at all! I mean, like, yes! Uhm, it's fine!" Cooke stumbled.

Agent Juliet smiled, without breaking eye contact, "You heard the men. They're consenting to the search."

The other agent placed the device on top of the scanner, and typed away at his computer for a solid minute. Then, the trapdoor popped open.

Cooke and Markus didn't react. Not a single flinch, or eye twitch.

The agent opened the door all the way, "...It's an empty safe."

Juliet looked down at the empty compartment, "Any traces of radioactivity?"

Cooke couldn't believe his ears. They just opened the door to the super computer, and they saw an empty safe! He looked over at Markus, who was completely unfazed.

The agent waved a wand-looking thing around it, "...Nothing."

Agent Juliet left the closet, "Anyone find anything?"

The observing agents each said no.

"Then we're done here." She corralled them out the door.

"Agent Juliet," Markus requested, "What was this about?"

"That's classified." She bluntly turned, "But what we're looking for isn't here. Thank you for your cooperation."

"I'm glad we could be of service." Cooke waved.

She began to walk away, then stopped, "Y'know... I find it oddly strange that you keep your spare parts and cleaning supplies locked under key."

"Agent, I find it strange you need a man with a machine gun guarding the front door to search a closet." Cooke retorted.

Juliet snapped around, "He's there for our protection. Is that troubling?"

Markus elbowed Cooke, "We keep our prototypes in the closet sometimes, and we don't want them stolen. And some of our spare parts are worth over a grand. That's it."

She slowly turned back towards the vehicles, and kept walking, "You boys are very strange."

"Security isn't strange." Cooke added, "You should know."

She turned back around, and Markus elbowed Cooke again.

"I should know?"

"The guy with the machine gun is what I mean." Cooke nodded.

Agent Juliet went back into her SUV, and they all drove away.

As soon as they were out of sight, Cooke and Markus let out a deep breath.

"I am so going to kill you." Markus punched Cooke's shoulder, "You nearly-"

Cooke covered Markus' mouth, "Loose lips sink ships... Let's get to work."

Cooke mimed a shushing motion, and pointed Markus to the closet.

They entered the closet, and Markus grabbed a strong microwave magnet from one of the various bins of spare parts and stuck it on top of the door. He then pulled out his phone, put it back together, and used it to open the door. This time, it opened up to the spiral staircase. Markus removed the magnet as Cooke descended into the super computer room, and he followed in tow, closing the door behind him.

"OOOOOKAY!" Cooke let out, "I'm sorry, I'm worried the place was bugged."

Markus ran over to the computer, and started running a scan on the facility, "...Nope."

"Okay, good, good." Cooke clapped his hands once, "Now, I have a few questions."

"I bet you do."

"First, we have a bug detecting program?"

"Jeremie sent it to us. Told me it might come in handy, based off experience apparently."

"Okay... How did the Agent see an empty safe? And what was the magnet for?"

Markus sat back, "Paranoia made me do it. Now it paid off!"

"Huh?"

"I was worried about something like this, the government busting in and finding Matriks, so I installed a tray over the staircase that's magnetized to the outer frame of the door, making it so anyone who opens it will see the tray. The magnet on the door reversed the magnetization, and the tray stuck to the door instead-"

"Revealing the stairs..." Cooke laughed, "Brilliant."

"Now, where was I?" Markus satirically pondered, "Oh, yeah, you nearly blew it!"

"Forget that, we have an activated tower to deal with!"

* * *

Agent Juliet opened up her laptop in the backseat, "Simmons, what was that place used for?"

The agent sitting next to her pulled out a file, "According to the file, it's been used by four groups over the last five years."

"Our groups, correct? Not college kidiots?" She sneered.

The agent nodded, "All low-level declassified projects. The last one being document storage."

"Where are those documents now?"

"On our servers." The agent pulled a sheet of paper out from the folder, "This is the inventory of the warehouse as it was being emptied."

She took the sheet, and scanned down the list, "...This isn't the stuff we're looking for."

The agent shrugged, and took the paper back. "Anything else?"

"Yes, actually." She pulled up the government files of Cooke and Markus on her computer, "Cooke was acting awfully suspicious. I want an extensive background check done on both of them. If either one has so much as an old psychology report from elementary school, or littering ticket, or a stupid fan fiction posted online, I want to see it in my report."

The passenger in the front seat turned around, "Juliet, that's a lot of work and resources to conduct a thorough investigation on two college kids. We still have four more warehouses to check. The director is not going to approve it, and he signs all those requests. Our background check on them has shown no evidence of anything we should prevent of, or any reason to dig deeper."

She shut her laptop, "I'll talk to the director myself if I have to, but it was clear Cooke was hiding something."

* * *

A call rang from Jeremie on the super computer, and Markus picked up.

"Enfin! There you guys are! I couldn't reach you two! Do you realize how panicked I was?!" Jeremie scolded.

"Oh man, I'm sure we can't fathom it." Cooke deadpanned.

"What's going on, Jeremie?" Markus sat down, and began a tower scan.

"There's an activated tower, and it's not on Lyoko." Jeremie warned.

"Then it's probably another data attack from JAER. Wouldn't surprise me, it's been over a week." Cooke shrugged.

The computer beeped, indicating the activated tower was localized.

"Uhh... Uh oh." Markus bit his lower lip, "Take a look."

Cooke looked at the screen. The tower avatar had a XANA symbol blinking next to it.

"Thaaaat's not good, is it?"

"Apart from you being the only one who can deactivate it, we can't give you backup for another three and a half hours. Except for Yumi and William, they're only three hours." Jeremie informed.

"Meaning I have to do a solo mission, and not get devirtualized, because then we'll be waiting another twelve hours." Cooke nodded, "I see. No pressure."

"I'll put you as close as I can to the activated tower. I don't see any monsters yet." Markus readied.

Cooke stepped into the scanner, "Alright, let's go kick some artificial intelligence butt!"

"Alrighty then," Markus began the scanning procedure, "Transfer..."

The scanner doors closed. Cooke inhaled deeply.

"Scanner... Virtualization."

* * *

Cooke fell on to the icy surface. He spawned onto a long pathway, with the digital sea hundreds of feet below him on both sides.

"I made it." Cooke stood up, "Which way?"

"End of this path in front of you." Markus answered, "Huh... Interesting. It appears this tower is on the inner edge of the sector."

"...Meaning?"

"That's the Way tower." Jeremie chimed in, "Be careful Cooke, XANA can do a lot of nasty things from a Way tower."

"Like?"

"Erase an entire sector."

"Ooo...kay." Cooke feared.

* * *

Cooke came up to a large plateau of ice, complete with a large cliff against the back.

"Lemme guess, the tower is on top of the cliff?"

"Close. Inside it." Markus corrected.

"I see. I'm just gonna scan the area real quick." Cooke furrowed his brows and focused, activating Extrasensory, and scanned for any monsters he couldn't see.

He didn't find anything, though.

"Y'know, I thought this would be a cool power, but it's not very practical... Or useful." Cooke complained.

"You say that now, but when you need it most you'll be glad you have it." Markus advised.

"Do they print that on the side of the energy drinks you drink so you'll keep coming back?" Cooke jabbed.

"You can't eat salad without bacon bits, so shut it!" Markus retorted.

Cooke rolled his eyes, and entered a tunnel in the front of the cliff.

"Hey, guys, I'm getting a buggy si-i-i-i-" Jeremie timed out of the chat, and disconnected.

"Get him back!"

"I'm trying, man!" Markus pulled out his phone, but saw he wasn't getting a signal in their computer bunker, "Shhhhoot! We've lost him!"

"Then we keep on going!"

Cooke pressed on, until he came upon a large room that had two branching pathways to the tower in the center of the room. Below those two pathways were chasms that we covered by a thick layer of fog.

"Uhh... This is gonna sound like a stupid question, but, are you _sure _this is the tower?"

"Yes! My screen even shows it as red! Right in front of you!"

"Then either XANA must be fantastic at camouflage, or your tower scanner is busted, because this tower isn't active."

"...What?"

"This tower is not activated. It's clear." Cooke repeated.

"For real? Man... This sucks."

Immediately, Cooke's foot got shot at.

"Ah, crap!" He dashed across on of the paths, and two Krabs came up to the two pathways and blocked them.

"Cooke!"

"I'm fine! But now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place!"

Cooke looked around, and noticed the room was closed in, and the Krabs were blocking his only exit... And they stopped firing.

"What on... Matriks..." Cooke shook his head, and pulled out his short sword-

Which was immediately smacked out of his hand into the chasm, assumedly landing in the digital sea. Cooke whipped around, and came face to face with a giant sword being held by an exceptionally evil William.

"Hey... Markus... Why didn't you tell me we had visitors?"

"Problem! I can't see any enemies on screen!"

"I am staring down a blade to a mister Willevil here, and he disarmed me."

"That's it, I'm bringing you back-"

The computer started an alarm, notifying Markus of an issue with the devirtualization program.

"Uhh, more bad news! There's a problem with the devirtualization program! You're trapped!"

Cooke looked back and forth, between William and the Krabs, and pieced it all together. "...I'm right where XANA wants me."

"What?!"

"Stuck here, alone, disarmed, exits blocked, no backup for at least another three hours, and in front of our world's Way tower. He tricked our tower scan to draw me out here alone, and cut us off from Jeremie." Cooke activated his Extrasensory and scanned around for exits, "But... What for?"

A large pinkish tentacle-y thing rose from the fog below, and floated over to Cooke. He didn't know what it was, but he saw XANA's mark clear as day on it.

"Uhh... I'm gonna assume whatever that thing is isn't good."

"...Huh?"

"Did our friends ever mention a big squid-jellyfish looking thing to you? Because it's not ringing a bell for me."

"No...-" Markus recalled a conversation with them.

"_**XANA… Took you? How?"**_

"_**There's a XANA controlled monster we call the Scyphozoa, which is capable of altering and controlling your brain. You'll know it when you see it."**_

"_**I take it that it looks like a jellyfish?"**_

"-OHHHHHH COOKE DON'T LET THAT THING GET NEAR YOU!" Markus panicked, and frantically opened the devirtualization code, which he now saw was sabotaged, "IT is GAME OVER if that thing TOUCHES YOU! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Loud and clear!" Cooke jumped to the other pathway, "What is it?!"

"That is the Scyphozoa and I was WARNED EXCLUSIVELY TO NEVER LET THAT GET NEAR YOU!"

"I need a weapon! Or an escape plan! NOW!"

"HOLD ON!"

The Scyphozoa advanced towards Cooke, who was unable to escape between William and the two Krabs, as well as the digital sea under his feet.

"I don't think I can hold on for very long!"


	6. And Breathe Out (Part 2)

Code Matriks

Episode 6: And Breathe Out (Part 2)

By B1ockh3d

Author's note: I have a few readers asking me to add more Matriks warriors, and all I have to say, is I _do_ have a plan for more! I'm not revealing when, but there will be more! Because there's only so much I can do with two characters before I get bored of writing my own story.

Also, I made a few edits in some of the previous chapters. Namey re-writing the scene where they meet Agent Juliet in chapter 1.

* * *

Markus quickly scanned the area Cooke was in, and got an idea, "Cooke! Jump down between the paths!"

"Say _what_?!"

"Don't argue!"

"The Scyphozoa's in my way!"

"Push past it AND JUMP!" Markus screamed.

The Scyphozoa began to wrap its tentacles around Cooke. Cooke quickly grabbed one of the tentacles, and swung down in-between the two paths. He fell for a short period, then the wall curved down into a tunnel, hitting a few rocks on the way.

"Oh my- OW!"

The tunnel ended abruptly, dropping Cooke down towards the digital sea.

"Oh PLEASE work!" Markus frantically slammed the enter key.

Cooke fell face first onto a flat object, "Owwwowow..."

"Are you alive?"

"I'm not in the sea... What did you..." Cooke propped himself up, and saw the Overboard underneath him.

"A little gift from Jeremie. I'm glad it worked." Markus stretched, leaned back, and exhaled, "Alright, we have probably twenty seconds before XANA figures out you didn't fall into the digital sea. You gotta get out of there."

Cooke stood up, and flew back above the plateaus of ice, "I'll head for the other end of the sector. The farther I get away from that thing the better."

"I'll try my best to reconnect with Jeremie-"

The comm audio spiked and distorted, then cleared up, "He... Hello? Cooke? Markus?"

"_Aelita_?!" Cooke relaxed, "Oh, I am so glad to hear you right now!"

"Cooke are you still there?!" Jeremie rushed, "Markus?!"

"I'm fine, Markus is fine, we're all good." Cooke eased.

"You just escaped the Scyphozoa!" Jeremie aided, "How did you manage that?!"

"I have a great operator behind the computer." Cooke complimented, "Look, we need to find where this tower actually is and deactivate it. In the meantime, Markus can't bring me in."

"Oh, it gets worst." Markus informed, "I'm looking through this mess that used to be the devirtualization code. Turns out, the last attack wasn't to establish a Replika on our school servers, it was to get access to our super computer. And the only way XANA could've done that is if he had a direct line to it."

"Oh no... When I plugged your laptop into the servers!" Cooke facepalmed.

"And this is where it gets worse. If you lose your last fifty life points, you won't be stepping out of the scanner." Markus sorrowed.

Cooke gulped, "W-well, I guess I better not screw up."

"Hey... Jeremie," Markus asked, "How were you able to see the monsters and I wasn't?"

"I don't know, but that's not what's important. We gotta get Cooke out of there!" Jeremie began madly typing at his keyboard, "And luckily for you guys, this isn't the first time we've dealt with this."

"Great!" Cooke looked around, "Do you guys know a tower I can hide in that isn't the Way tower?"

"No, you can only enter active towers except for the Way tower." Jeremie reaffirmed.

"Jeremie, the passage tower?" Aelita reminded

"Oh my god," Jeremie stopped, "It's been so long since we've needed to use a passage tower I completely forgot about it!"

"Great, great, where is it?" Cooke rushed.

"It should be close to the center of the Sector." Aelita advised.

"Excellent... I'm almost halfway there."

"I'll get the coordinates." Markus promised.

Cooke surfed along the surface on the Overboard, and black smoke shot out from under him and formed into evil William up ahead.

"Ah!" Cooke jumped off and let the Overboard go after William, who sliced it in half.

"What's going on?!" Markus freaked.

"Our old pal- oof," Cooke stood up, "William's here. And I'm still without my short sword."

"Hold on-"

"Stop saying "hold on" when dangerous things are coming after me!"

"-Hold out your hand. One sword, coming up!"

One of Yumi's fans materialized in Cooke's hand, "...Uhm... No."

Markus pushed up his glasses and looked at the screen, "Oh... Sorry man."

Cooke opened up the fan, "I'll make do. Just pray David beats Goliath."

"I'll get you another weapon, just stall him for a minute." Markus promised.

"Sixty seconds starting now." Cooke readied, as William sped towards him. Cooke just turned around and began running the other way.

This didn't help much, because William was faster than him.

"I thought that sword weighed him down!" Cooke complained.

Cooke twisted around and threw the fan, that William easily ducked.

"There's a nearby cave you can hide in!" Jeremie suggested.

Cooke caught the fan, "I see it, but I don't think it'll do me much good!"

William turned into smoke, and sped past Cooke to block the tunnel entrance, "Bow before me!"

"I'm good-" Cooke jumped onto a slope next to him and slid down to a lower platform.

"Cooke! You have twenty life points left!"

"Yeah, yeah." Cooke ran, noticing a waterfall with an ominous purple glow behind it, "...Huh."

"William's coming!" Jeremie warned.

Cooke sprinted to the waterfall, and went through it, revealing a passageway.

As William caught up, the waterfall froze in place.

"Uh- _What_?!" Cooke freaked.

"What's going on _now_?!" Markus joined.

"The waterfall just _froze _and locked William out!" Cooke relaxed, "It's like... _Something _just _helped _me?"

William started slashing at the ice wall, slowly cracking it.

"That wall isn't going to hold, keep going!" Jeremie commanded.

Cooke hesitated, spotting the same purple glow down the corridor he had to follow, "...Are there any enemies down there?"

"There's one right next to you if you don't HURRY UP!" Markus yelled.

Cooke shrugged, and pressed on.

* * *

Cooke came to the end of the icy corridor, and came to a massive room, with an interesting sight.

An activated tower, glowing purple.

"Hey guys... Why is this tower glowing purple?"

Jeremie pushed up his glasses, "Uhh... What tower?"

"There's a tower in front of me, glowing purple."

"I don't see any towers on screen." Markus affirmed.

"I'm definitely standing in front of a tower."

Jeremie checked his super scanner, "I'm not seeing any activated towers, aside from the baited Way tower."

"Should I enter it?"

Cooke heard a shattering, it was William breaking through the ice.

"I don't kn-"

"Too late!" Cooke dashed into the purple tower.

William arrived just in time to see the tower deactivate, and disappear.

"Cooke?" Markus called out, "Hello?"

Nothing.

* * *

Cooke stood up, and dusted himself off, "Phew... I made it guys!"

The tower was silent.

"G... Guys? Hello?" He shouted, with no response.

He looked around, and saw the floor he was standing on that was usually a XANA symbol was a solid disk glowing purple. This wasn't a normal tower.

He approached the wall again, and tried to exit. He couldn't get out.

"I... Just fell into a trap." he crossed his arms, "Like an idiot."

He opened his borrowed fan, expecting either William or the Scyphozoa to come out and get him.

Strangely, a holographic panel popped up on the opposite side of the room.

He began walking over to it, carefully looking around himself the entire way there. He looked down at the panel, "...Welcome to Matriks?"

The panel flashed "BEGIN!" And displayed a question.

_What is your name?_

He typed in: Cooke.

_What is your quest?_

"No..." he laughed, "This isn't- _nooo_... If this answer is what I think it is... This _must _be a practical joke."

He typed in: I seek the Holy Grail.

_What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?_

"Okay." he shook his head, "This is screwing with me. There's no way this thing is asking me thi- MARKUS! VERY FUNNY!"

Still no response.

"You seriously better start talking, because this isn't funny. We're in a serious situation right now! You've wasted all this time to make a program to _screw _with me?" he laughed, "Hahah! Very funny! You better be working on debugging that script so I can come back and give you a big ol' pat on the back!"

Complete silence. He rolled his eyes.

"Alright, I guess I'll play along!"

He typed in: That depends. African or European?

The computer processed the answer.

_What is that scene?_

"What is this... A high-tech game of Scene It?"

He typed in: Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

_...INCORRECT!_

"What- That's what it's from!" He screamed at the panel.

The panel closed, and the tower disappeared from around Cooke, who was now somewhere random in the ice sector.

* * *

Markus and Jeremie saw Cooke pop back up on their screen, near the outer edge of the sector.

"Cooke!" They both exclaimed.

"Markus? Jeremie?" Cooke eased, "Where am I?"

"South end of the sector, more importantly, where _were _you?" Markus puzzled.

"I'm... That wasn't _your _doing?" Cooke queried.

"No! Neither of us did it!"

"It was like you fell off the map!"

Cooke looked around, "...Huh..."

"What happened, man? You were gone for TWO HOURS!" Markus worried.

"_TWO HOURS?!_ It was only a few minutes!" Cooke shook his head, "Okay look, I'll explain, but, get me a vehicle and weapon first so I can find the passage tower!"

Markus spawned in the Overbike and one of Ulrich's sabers, "Not exactly your little nubbin of a sword, but it's all I got."

Cooke grabbed the sword and hopped on the Overbike, "It'll do!"

* * *

Cooke comfortably dismounted the Overbike inside the tower, "Okay... So... Some weird stuff happened."

"Like...?"

"I entered this purple tower you guys couldn't see for some reason, and I _guess _I was teleported somewhere, but there was this control panel that said "Welcome to Matriks" and then, you won't believe this, it asked me my name, quest, and airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow."

"That depends, African or European?" Markus filled in, "But, it _asked _you those questions from Monty Python and the Holy Grail?"

"Yeah!" Cooke leaned up against the Overbike, "And that wasn't the weirdest part!"

"Oh?"

"It asked me what that scene was from, I answered correctly, and it said I was _incorrect_!" Cooke exhausted, "What's the status on debugging our code?"

"We just finished, actually." Markus relived, "We can bring you in whenever."

"...Then why did you guys give me a sword and- Nevermind. What about the tower?"

"Long since done." Jeremie smiled, "We modified the super scan and found the tower on Lyoko, and I figured out a way to shorten Aelita's time by ninety minutes. Everyone's in bed. Except for me, I'm in my room in my pajamas keeping quiet."

"You guys did a _solo mission_?!"

"Yeah. It was strange, there weren't any monsters in sight. I figure XANA saved up the energy over the last three weeks to launch two large attacks. One to bring us all to Lyoko so we were all clocked out when he launched his second attack, which was getting you all alone so he could attempt to capture you." Jeremie explained, "And we didn't have monsters to deal with because he was exhausted of resources."

"Dang... Too bad he failed." Cooke laughed, "So, are you guys gonna bring me in or what?"

"I've already launched the program. Give it about thirty more seconds."

"Oh, thank goodness. I'm done with this place for today. I'm ready for dinner."

* * *

The scanner doors opened, and Cooke let out a deep breath, "Earrrrth... Home sweet hooooome..."

Markus ran over and helped him out, "Dude, you had us on edge the entire time. Aelita had to drag Jeremie away from his computer!"

"Like I said, it felt like minutes." Cooke shook his head, "I walked in, the panel appeared and asked those questions, and left just as fast."

Markus patted Cooke's back, "Alright, we have to figure what that tower was and why it was asking you to recite Monty Python."

"First," Cooke held up his index finger and grabbed his stomach, "...Hold on!"

Cooke ran over by the stairwell and threw up three times.

"Second..." He came back, still clutching his stomach, "...I'm hungry."

* * *

Markus opened the door to their dorm, "I don't think it was such a great idea to eat _three _burgers!"

"I'm fine, man." Cooke rolled his eyes, "Just be glad you're on the top bunk."

Markus went right to his laptop, and plugged in a flash drive. The screen flickered, and an operating system similar to the one on the super computer booted, dubbed LyokOS.

"We should really get some sleep, don't cha think?"

Markus checked the clock, "...Dude, it's only eight."

"Ah... Being gone for two hours skewed my sense of time." Cooke flopped down onto his bed, "I'll sleep then."

"If anything, you should think it's six." Markus noted.

"Well, screw you. I'm sleeping now."

"Well _I'm _gonna dig through all this code and find your purple tower."

Cooke rolled his eyes, "Good luck with that."

* * *

A giant folder was dropped next to Agent Juliet.

"What's this?"

"The background checks you asked for."

She opened it, and flipped through everything, "...There's nothing new here."

"There's nothing new about them." The male agent sat down across from her, "Cooke is a mechanical engineering major with good marks, Edwards is a software engineering major with excellent marks, even making the Dean's list of honorable students."

"Is there anything new in this file?" Juliet panned.

The agent picked out a small bundle of papers, "We have Cooke's last high school psychology report from two years ago."

"This is something new about them." Juliet grabbed the papers from the agent, "Let's see... Prone to suffering stress-related breakdowns... Easily frightened... Wait, hold on, little regard for his own welfare? How does "easily frightened" go hand in hand with "little regard for his own welfare?" What does that mean?"

The agent picked up the papers, "It means he's a stressed out kid who's a walking adrenaline bomb. More fighting instincts than flying. Basically, a regular college student."

Juliet put all the papers back in the folder, "My investigation isn't done."

"Juliet, you're wasting resources and your time by investigating two college kids who have no red flags, and the reason Cooke was cracking is because you were scaring him. This report is more than enough to convince your commanding officer." The agent lectured, "Save yourself time, energy, and taxpayer dollars and just drop this ridiculous "hunch" of yours."

Juliet gave the same murder stare she gave to Cooke to the agent, who was completely unfazed, "...Alright, fine."

* * *

"COOKE!" Markus shook him awake, "Wake up!"

Cooke groggily rolled over, "Whaaaat...?"

The clock read 1:47 A.M.

"It's almost twooooo..."

"But look!" Markus shoved his laptop screen into Cooke's face, "See this?!"

Cooke shut his eyes due to the bright screen, "Noooo... What is it?"

"A port!"

Cooke opened up one eye, "Aren't there like... Dozens of hundreds of ports though? Aren't those what the towers are- oooooh!"

"Yes, the towers ARE ports. So is your illusive purple tower!"

Cooke sat up and looked at the screen, "...What am I looking for?"

Markus pointed at a command line labeled 47395991, which was a blank line.

"Jesus... Forty seven _million _lines of code?!"

"This is only a fraction of the script responsible for the behavior of the passage tower." Markus sat down next to Cooke, "Thanks to some software Jeremie gave me, I could find it. But it wasn't easy..."

"Okay, but still... Why are you showing me a blank line of script?"

"I've noticed throughout the code, all the towers are intertwined in some way. Except for the chunk of code after this line."

Cooke shook his head, "It's two in the morning, my brain isn't working, just explain the long-winded tech babble to the audience so I can go back to sleep..."

"...Man, you must be tired!"

"Man, you must be detective of the year, Sherlock!" Cooke mimed a force choke, "Get on with it!"

"Right then," Markus pushed his glasses up, "This chunk of code is for linking up with other towers, as is identical to hundreds of other chunks, but this one has an extra command."

"And this one links to the purple tower?"

"It must, because the extra command is a redirect to a script that's encrypted in the same place the rest of Matriks is and we can't access." Markus shut his laptop, "Or it's nothing, and I've lost my marbles."

Cooke pushed Markus off his bed, "When you wake up, we'll take a second look and talk to Jeremie. But just go to bed for crissakes!"


	7. Eyes of Ember

Code Matriks

Episode 7: Eyes of Ember

By B1ockh3d

Author's Note: Hey there! I see I have a good number of readers, and my schedule is softening a bit. I have school starting in a few weeks (which is weird to think about, when you saw only a few chapters ago I was taking a break from writing for finals,) and I'm hoping to get the next two chapters done before the next one is posted to give me a cushion, so you can't tell when I'm taking a break.

Now, I have something to address that kind of annoys me. At this time, I have 14 reviews, and at least half of them say "great chapter, update soon." First, thanks for reading and taking time to review, but could you leave me a bit more information? Tell me what you like? Who your favorite characters are? Etc.? This way I can see what you guys like and improve those aspects? Please give me something to work with is all I'm saying. Thank you.

* * *

Cooke was sitting in the school cafeteria, with his face on the desk. His laptop was open, compiling various code for a robot.

Markus sat down across from him, and slid over a burger, "Hey man."

Cooke looked up, "Mmm? Burger?"

"Yes, burger." Markus nodded, "How's the script coming along?"

"It's compiling." Cooke opened up the burger wrapper and began eating, "Should be done before Engineering."

"Good, good." Markus pulled out his laptop, "I've got news too."

"Oh?"

"That port I found? The mysterious one hidden in tens of millions of lines of code?" Markus bit his lower lip, "Yeah... Dead end. It was nothing."

"That's mildly annoying." Cooke rolled his eyes.

"But! Better news!" Markus paused, "I found two things interesting while reviewing the security camera footage!"

"...Why do we even have- never mind. What are they?"

Markus turned his laptop around, and showed a shot that was over Markus' shoulder, "Look carefully on the screen to the right. I didn't see it when it happened. This was when that waterfall froze in place."

He played the clip. On the screen Markus was noting, was the basic mini map of the area and surrounding enemies. It was highlighting Cooke as green and William as red. And for a split second, a yellow dot indicating an unknown monster appeared and disappeared.

"...So?"

"_So_?! _This _could be the reason the waterfall froze!" Markus argued, "I'm sure of it!"

"I doubt it. But, let's keep things moving, what's the other thing?"

Markus let the video continue, and switched the camera to the one in the room containing the physical super computer.

"Now... Wait just a moment. You're walking down the corridor at this time, going to the purple tower."

The light on the middle super computer was glowing blue.

"That just means it's on, man..."

"Shh! Watch!"

About thirty seconds later, the blue light turned purple and blinked eight times, then returned to solid blue.

"And that was when you entered the tower."

Cooke sat back, "...Huh. So, whatever happened was supposed to happen."

Markus fast-forwarded the security footage ahead two hours, and the same thing happened. Eight purple blinks.

"And that was when you left the tower."

Cooke replayed the footage, "...Any theories?"

"None yet. I already sent it along to Aelita and Jeremie, who are in the middle of a XANA attack." Markus casually mentioned.

"What- they didn't invite me?!"

"Dude! Remember! XANA is their war, JAER is ours. We're merely helping behind the scenes." Markus reminded, "Not to mention, XANA has a Scyphozoa with your name on it."

Cooke rolled his eyes, "As long as they don't restart our day abruptly."

A white flash engulfed them.

* * *

Cooke and Markus threw off their sheets.

"Son of a-"

"You jinxed us!" Markus blamed.

"Next time you talk to Jeremie, ask him to program something that gives us a heads up!" Cooke huffed, "There must be at least a few seconds delay from when they start it to when it affects us!"

Markus peered over the railing of his bed, "Sucks you have to recompile that code."

"...Oh GREAT!"

* * *

Cooke was sitting in the school cafeteria, with his face on the desk. His laptop was open, compiling various code for a robot.

Markus sat down across from him, and slid over a taco, "Hey man."

Cooke looked up, "Mmm? Taco this time?"

"Yessir!" Markus nodded, "How's the script coming along _this _time?"

"Well, unlike last time, it'll be done in a few minutes."

"Excellent," Markus opened his laptop, "By the way, I wasn't done sharing the good news."

"What?"

"There's a ship on Matriks with your name on it!" Markus flipped his laptop around, showing a model of a ship that looked like one of the NavSkids with a large wingspan.

"It looks like a Manta ray."

"It kinda does, huh?"

Cooke unwrapped his taco and began eating it, "Did you ever find out what happened on Lyoko?"

Markus shook his head, "Haven't gotten in touch with him yet."

"Alright, so we'll test it out tonight."

"That's the plan!" Markus checked his watch, "Alright, I have English in fifteen minutes."

Cooke waved, "Bye."

* * *

Markus sat down for his class, two rows from the front in a room of about 50 people.

"Welcome back to class. I hope you're all working on the paper due this Friday, hint hint nudge nudge." The teacher reminded, "We're going over contractions today, I'm pretty sure you're all familiar with them."

The whole class grunted in acknowledgement.

"Buuut you probably aren't familiar with our new student!" The teacher introduced, pointing to a girl standing next to him. She appeared to be about 19 or 20, short pink hair, and a pretty fair height.

Markus quietly gasped, "Holy... She looks just like..."

_Aelita!_

Except, her eyes were unnaturally orange. Like a bright shade of ember.

"Please introduce yourself to the class."

"My name is Shelda F. Fercaow." She answered robotically.

"Hm." Markus quietly grunted. _What a peculiar name._

"Miss Fercaow, please take a seat behind Mister Edwards."

Shelda walked over in a soldier-like manner, and sat behind Markus.

Markus turned around, "Hi there, I'm-"

"Markus Josiah Edwards." She panned, emotionless.

This was just too weird. A girl who looks like the grown up version of Aelita with a _very _strange name and she knew who Markus was? _And his middle name_? Not to mention, her strange personality?

Markus turned back towards the board, knowing things just got even stranger.

* * *

"There are no activated towers on Lyoko." Jeremie informed, "I've triple-checked."

"What is this about?" Cooke demanded.

"I think XANA launched an attack!" Markus convinced, "There's this girl in my class, just got here, and she looks _exactly _like an older version of Aelita!"

"Have you checked the security camera footage? Maybe he made a clone from your scanner?" Jeremie suggested.

Markus nodded, "I've checked, there's been no activity."

"Anything else you can tell us about... Shelby?" Aelita asked.

"Shelda... She has dark orange eyes that are clearly not contacts, walks and talks like a robot, and knew who I was! Including my _middle name_!"

"What's her last name?" Jeremie started pounding away at his keyboard.

"Fercaow, spelt F-E-R-C-A-O-W."

Jeremie looked up her information, "...Huh. All her legal records seem to be in place. Time stamps are correct, handwritten tax forms from last year. But..."

"But?"

"She has no picture on file. Not even in the DMV or Passport databases. No social media sites, no... Phone number or known emails?"

Aelita closely looked at the screen, "...This is definitely unusual."

Cooke snapped his fingers, "Maybe she's a government agent! Like an undercover narc!"

Markus shook his head, "No, narcs are supposed to blend _in_. She sticks _out _like a sore thumb."

"Maybe she's just not that good at her job?" Cooke sighed, "Look, she has a bunch of legitimate looking documents and no picture on file. She knows your full name, and enrolled in a class you're taking. The only logical explanation is that she's an undercover!"

"Then explain why she would reveal the fact she _knew _who I was? Even a bad agent knows to let the target introduce themselves!" Markus scratched his head, "And why does she look _just like_ Aelita? Except older?"

Cooke leaned against the table, "...Fair points. But, maybe the semblance is just uncanny."

"Wouldn't be the first time." Jeremie commented.

"Really man? Short _pink _hair?" Markus rolled his eyes, "I guess you'll have to see her to believe me."

"...Sooo... You guys wanna talk about this while testing the MantiSkid?" Jeremie proposed.

"That's what it's called?" Cooke raised an eyebrow, "...Not too bad of a name, actually."

Markus pulled up the keyboard closer to him, "Alright, let's get this show on the road. Beginning the transfer sequence."

Cooke stepped inside the scanner, and the doors closed.

* * *

Cooke landed on the surface, right outside of a tunnel at the base of a cliff.

"Where to?"

"The Way tower, where you were almost captured last week."

"Ah, thought the place looked familiar."

Cooke ran inside and came upon the room with two paths leading to a tower. He grabbed his sword and held tightly as he drew it, keeping tabs on his backside and front side. Luckily, no one "greeted" him.

"Alright, coast is clear."

"Look around, do you see a pad?"

Cooke saw a target-looking pad attached to the left path, "Yeah."

"Go stand on it!"

Cooke walked over and stood on the pad. The pad pressed downward, and slowly the MantiSkid with its lengthy wings folded up rose from the fog below.

"Heh. Very impressive, Jeremie." Cooke complimented.

"Merci!" Jeremie thanked, "For now, just come to Lyoko. We aren't going straight to the Cortex _just _yet."

"Okay." Cooke slouched back, "Sooo... How do I get in the thing?"

"Transferring now." Markus announced.

Cooke teleported into the MantiSkid. Inside, it looked just like the interior of the NavSkids, down to the same control setup. The only real difference was that the cockpit was a bit slimmer. If the glass was any closer to Cooke's face, it'd fog up!

"What exactly did you guys do? It looks like one of your little spore ships."

"Well, because it mostly is. We just took a NavSkid and modified it." Aelita chimed in.

"We are in a bind for time, it was just quicker and easier to take what we had and improve it." Jeremie explained.

Cooke shrugged, and started it up. He carefully guided it towards the digital sea, "Hey, this is pretty easy!"

"Just be careful and don't lose all your shields! That's the only thing separating you from the virtual grassy knoll!" Markus warned.

"Or, in this case, the virtual ocean that can very much kill me for realsies." Cooke lamely joked, and dove into the digital sea.

* * *

Cooke shot out of the gateway to Matriks.

"I'm alive!"

Everyone took a collective sigh of relief.

"Okay, there should be a blue button on the right-hand panel to extend the wings." Markus advised.

Cooke peered over the console, and pressed the blue button above his pinky. The wings folded out fully, and a message popped up, reading: "Turbo: Online"

"Where's the turbo?"

"Big ol' button." Markus laughed.

Cooke saw a big button surrounded by three smaller buttons under his thumb, and pressed it.

_FOOOSH!_

"Ah!" Cooke slammed back into his seat, and regained control, "Thing packs a punch!"

Unfortunately, the sea began to glow red.

"Uh ohhh..." Jeremie panicked, "Uhh, bad news."

"I know enemies are after me!"

"No, it's not that," Jeremie bit his lower lip, "I... Didn't upgrade the weapons."

Cooke raised an eyebrow, "Okay? So? At least I have_ a _weapon?"

"It won't work in winged mode or turbo mode, unless the target is head on."

"Then I guess I'll have to stop, genius." Cooke rolled his eyes, and stopped the MantiSkid to return it to its non-winged form.

Three sharks started swimming towards him. He activated the gun, and let loose.

He hit one immediately, and the two others swam off. He chased one of them down, and started shooting, but the shark ducked them all and swam downwards.

"Cooke! On your right!" Markus yelled.

Cooke looked to his right, right as a beam from the other shark hit him square in the glass, "Gah!"

He swung the ship upwards to aim his gun, and shot the shark.

_Direct hit!_

"Alright, one left!" Cooke checked his radar, and saw a ping directly behind him.

He pushed the nose downwards and hit the reverse thrusters, launching him above the shark with his gun aimed at him. He fired-

_KA-PFFT!_

The sea turned back to blue.

"Three for three! That was easy enough." Cooke relaxed, and re-extended the wings and restarted the turbo thrusters.

"Don't be so reckless!" Markus complained, "It'll be a pain to do all the paperwork alone if you die in a government sponsored lab!"

"Really feeling the love, man." Cooke laughed.

* * *

Cooke made it to Lyoko, with no further issues.

"Alright, made it! It works!" Cooke celebrated, "Uh, now what?"

"Go back." Jeremie shrugged.

"You're... Kidding." Cooke leaned back, "This was the most pointless thing. I can't believe it was written in here. It serves no purpose. How lame."

"...What are you- we just tested the MantiSkid! There wasn't much beyond that we had planned!" Markus defended, "We'll upgrade the gun to work in turbo mode so you don't have to slow down. Come on back."

"When are we going to attack the Cortex anyways?" Cooke asked.

"As soon as possible!" Jeremie breathed, "We had a major attack today that took out half the school's gym and everyone saw it. Luckily, the spectre didn't get any data."

"Oh, so that's what that return trip was about." Cooke guided he MantiSkid towards the digital sea.

"Yeah. XANA only needs to steal back five percent of his energy from us, then he'll be back at full power!"

"Five percent, huh? That might explain why it prefers to go after me."

"How so?" Markus raised an eyebrow.

"C'mon man, I'm an easier target. XANA has ninety-five percent of its power, so naturally, it can afford strong attacks against me that are bound to be more successful. I have less backup, less experience, and if XANA got its grimy paws on Matriks, it has two quantum computers at his disposal." Cooke noted.

"Sooo... We need more Matriks warriors?" Markus hinted.

"God, NO! We have five Lyoko Warriors available, why risk more lives?!" Cooke argued, "We just need a way for them to spawn on Matriks without having to make a trip through the sea."

"Aha!" Jeremie cheered, "And that's exactly what we did when we created the MantiSkid! As long as it's docked at your Way tower, we can spawn on Matriks or the Cortex directly."

"Then I guess I'll be sure to keep it docked." Cooke dove into the digital sea.

* * *

"Y'know what I don't understand?" Cooke asked, as he shoved a dollar into the soda machine.

"What?" Markus looked up from his notebook.

"Most of whatever you and Jeremie do." Cooke selected Coke.

"Pff... Don't look at me." Markus defended, "Jeremie is oodles faster than me at coding. Most the stuff we have is stuff he made for Lyoko, but I just change it to work for Matriks."

"No wonder." Cooke opened up his coke and took a swig, "Mmm! Dinner?"

Markus checked his watch, "It's only, like, five thirty. Isn't it a bit early?"

"Nahh, it's never too early for food. C'mon."

Cooke grabbed a food tray, and got in line for a Chinese food place. Followed by Markus.

...Followed by Shelda.

Markus nudged Cooke and whispered, "Dude! That's her!"

Cooke glanced over, and widened his eyes, "Oh... Holy crap. You're right, she _does _look like Aelita!"

Shelda didn't notice them talking. She stared robotically at the menu.

"Act cool." Markus advised.

"James Dean or Robert Downey Junior?"

"Robert after taking a hit."

"Ahh, gotcha." Cooke relaxed, "Ayyy can I get some chicken lo mein?"

Markus nudged Cooke, "I said Robert, not James!"

"Shush!"

Markus looked over at Shelda, who was now blankly staring at the food behind the glass.

"She hasn't noticed us yet." Markus whispered.

"Then let's keep moving." Cooke hurried.

* * *

Cooke and Markus sat down at a small round table, and Shelda took a seat at a table facing them at the other side of the room.

"You're definitely right, there's something weird about her." Cooke nodded.

Markus pulled out his laptop and plugged his flash drive into it, "I'm gonna do a no-no."

"Oh oh?"

"I'm gonna look up her schedule."

"Ah... Hacking into the school directory." Cooke moved his chair to the side of the table.

Markus spent a solid 30 seconds breaching the servers, then quickly pulled Shelda's records, "Lessee... She's in my English class... Math... Our Engineering class..."

"She's in all of our classes." Cooke leaned in closer, "Except one."

Cooke pointed at a French 134 class.

Markus slammed his laptop shut, "Alright, there's no way this is a coincidence."

"Should we stalk and spy on her?"

Markus looked over to the table Shelda is- well, _was _sitting at, "I have an eerie feeling it's going to be the other way around."

* * *

Cooke flopped down into his bed, "Well... Today was boring."

"Aside from Shelda." Markus reminded.

"Well, we're in our room. It's not like she can follow us in this building. All male dorms!"

"Yeah." Markus half laughed, "...But the female dorms are only a hundred feet away from us."

Cooke sprang back up, "And our room is in sight of them, crap!"

Cooke opened the curtains and looked across the commons towards the female dorms.

Markus opened his laptop, "And to think guys fight over the odd numbered rooms!"

"What room is she in?!"

Markus reopened her file, "...Aw jeez... Four-eighteen."

"Even number... That's the left side of their building."

"And we're on the right side of ours- She can see us!" Markus pried Cooke away from the window, and narrowed his eyes down to the fourth floor of the building they were across from-

And there was Shelda, staring out the window with her ember eyes.

Markus lurched back, shut the window, and closed the blinds.

"It's official... Things just got scarier."


	8. Number Games

Code Matriks

Episode 8: Number Games

By B1ockh3d

Author's note: I probably didn't make this clear, but if you're confused by the timeline, this story takes place a few months after Code Lyoko Evolution. If you haven't seen it yet, this chapter will make zero sense to you.

* * *

Cooke shook Markus in his bed, "Dude! DUDE!"

Markus cracked open an eye, "MmmHmmm?"

"It's NINE FOURTY-SEVEN!"

Markus's eyes widened, and jumped out of his top bunk, "WHY didn't you tell me SOONER?!"

"I was in English at eight! I just got here to get my Physics book for our class IN THIRTEEN MINUTES!"

"I know I know!" Markus crudely pulled up his pants from yesterday, and grabbed an energy drink.

"I'll save your seat!" Cooke ran out of the room.

Markus picked up a shirt from the floor and threw it on. He unplugged his laptop and stuffed it in his backpack with his drink, and scooped up an assortment of flash drives. He grabbed his wallet and keys, and ran out the door.

"Ah! Presentation!" Markus remembered, and ran back inside to grab a binder full of loose papers. Then he ran out the door.

* * *

He ran from his dorm to the science building through the commons-

And crashed into someone, making both of their sets of loose papers go flying.

"Sorry!" Markus fell to his knees and started to pick up his papers. He then noticed who he ran into.

Shelda.

"Oh..." _Crap!_

The _last_ person he wanted to run into.

"It's okay." She spoke plainly, and started reaching into her shuffle of papers.

Markus frantically grabbed a few more papers and bolted, "See you in class Shelda!"

* * *

Markus slid into his seat next to Cooke, and checked the clock: 9:58 A.M.

"Phew..." Markus leaned back, and then reached into his backpack and grabbed his energy drink and started chugging it.

"Dude, slow down!" Cooke advised, "You may have performed like an F1 this morning, but that doesn't mean you _are _an F1!"

Markus stopped drinking for a moment, "I'm too tired to figure out what you meant by that."

"Don't treat yourself like an F1 and guzzle gas!"

"I... Still don't know what you mean by that." Markus continued chugging

Cooke rolled his eyes, "Unbelievable."

The clock struck 10, and Shelda entered the room followed by the professor.

"Welcome to class. I hope you all had a good night's rest, because we are going to dive straight into presentations. We have nine to get through, and ninety minutes to get through them in." The professor held up his clipboard, "First up, Joel Zimmer."

* * *

"Alright, our fifth and middle presenter, Markus Edwards, you're up next." The teacher leaned back in his chair.

Markus trudged up to the podium and plugged his laptop into the projector. His first slide was a picture of a black hole.

"Hello, my name is Markus Edwards, and I will be talking about black hole theory and its correlation with quantum physics." Markus straightened out his notes, "And yes, this subject is a matter of life, and death of matter itself."

Crickets. Cooke buried his face into his palms.

"...Tough crowd. Would've killed in astrophysics." Markus moved onto his next page of notes, which was a sheet of graph paper, "Oh, oops."

He flipped it over, and saw random numbers and letters within all the little boxes.

This wasn't his.

"Sorry, I got my notes all mixed-" he paused. This paper was peculiarly handwritten, and every line break ended with either an 8, 3, or 1, "-up?"

He shuffled it to the back, and got his next sheet of notes ready. He didn't have time to review it, or even figure out what it was. But whatever it was, it couldn't get in the way of his presentation. "Anyways, black hole theory..."

* * *

Cooke and Markus left the classroom, and went straight to the cafeteria.

"Dude, awesome presentation today." Cooke complimented.

"Thanks! When do you have yours?"

"Day after tomorrow."

Cooke and Markus went off campus to a little taco shop, which was the only one they knew of in the state of Washington. They both got some burritos and tacos to cover their lunch and dinner.

Markus sat down, "Alright, so, man, remember the beginning of my presentation?"

Cooke sat opposite of him, "Not really. Other than your terrible attempt at a joke."

Markus rolled his eyes, "No, when I got distracted by a paper in my notebook."

"No."

Markus reached into his backpack and pulled out the unusual sheet, "Take a look!"

Cooke looked the sheet of seemingly random numbers and letters, and awkwardly placed breaks, "...What am I looking for?"

Markus shrugged.

Cooke flipped over the paper, "Oh, you missed a line... Huh."

"What?"

Cooke slid it over. They only thing on that page was a single line of numbers, which was 313131313131313131313131313131313131313131313138.

"And an eight... How did you get this paper?" Cooke eyed.

"I don't know, I don't remember it." Markus sat back, "Wait, how are threes and ones repeating significant? And why the eight?"

"How is this entire paper significant?" Cooke raised, "...I think I might have an idea what this is though."

"I'm open to suggestions."

"It looks like the sequencing to an... Encryption of some sort?" Cooke shrugged, "But even if that is what it is, it's useless unless we know what we're decrypting."

"Maybe it's a coded message. That would explain the random letters." Markus proposed.

"Well, I'm no code breaker, but I do know we need a legend of some sort." Cooke slumped back.

"Or, maybe it's just gibberish. It only makes sense to the person that made it." Markus gave up.

Cooke leaned forward, "Okay man, think back. Did you make this late at night fueled by unhealthy energy drinks? Maybe you picked it up by accident? Or maybe you bumped into someone while comedically running to class and your notes mixed?"

"No, no, n-"

"Oh?"

Markus put his face into his palms. _How could I be so stupid?!_

"I was running to class, and I bumped into Shelda, mixing our notes."

Cooke slammed his fist on the table, making Markus jump, "BINGO! This _is_ significant!"

Markus slouched back, "Okay, what should we do with it then, Detective Cooke?"

"Try to crack it, of course!"

Markus laughed, "Be my guest. I'm not gonna worry about it-" Markus' phone rang, and he picked it up, "Hello?"

"It's Jeremie."

"I know, what's up?"

"We figured out how to open the door to the Cortex without Aelita!"

"Really?! Excellent!" Markus leaned towards Cooke and included him in the call, "We should start making plans!"

"We have a plan, and that's get here now and get it over with." Jeremie bluntly explained.

"Wait, _now_? We still have classes!" Cooke rejected, "Classes I _will _be attending."

"The sooner we eliminate XANA, the better." Jeremie shook his head.

"Don't you still have to make the virus?" Markus queried, "You said last time it took you guys several months to make it."

"With all the data we took from Tyron, we had more than enough time to make a new and improved one."

"Well, you'll have to sit there until three- er, nine in your time, until we get out of class. After all, you need _me _to go do it." Cooke flaunted, "Until then, go... Eat dinner! It's six for you right now."

"Gah! Tu me prends la tête! Très bien!" Jeremie hung up angrily.

Cooke laughed, "We made our French fry of a friend very angry!"

Markus just buried his hands in his face, "Let's just eat our lunch and go to class..."

* * *

They got out of class, and began walking to their laboratory.

"So, how will I get the Cortex door open?" Cooke asked.

Markus shrugged, "I don't know. A miracle, I suppose. I don't even know how Aelita opens it. But, they say they found a way, so let's do it."

"Yeah..." Cooke pulled out his phone, and stopped suddenly, "Don't move."

Markus froze, "What? What is it?"

Cooke began walking, with phone in hand in front of him, "...Keep going like normal."

Markus began moving, and saw that Cooke's phone was blank. He screen wasn't even on, "What are you-"

"Shhh..."

The duo walked forwards a bit more, then Cooke jumped up and spun around, "WHAT ARE YOU- Huh?!"

Markus turned around, and saw nothing behind them, "You're scaring me, man. What _are _you doing?"

Cooke relaxed, "I swear I saw Shelda in the reflection of my phone following us!"

Markus looked around, "Well, unless she can teleport, there's no one behind us."

Cooke scanned the area with his eyes, "But... I swear I saw her... Pink hair and all."

"I'll take your word for it." Markus took a deep breath, and exhaled, "Maybe we're becoming paranoid and obsessive."

Cooke put his phone away, "I think we have every right to suspect."

"Suspect, sure." Markus continued, "But we don't have any real evidence that she's anything _but _a regular girl who studies Mechanical and Software Engineering and fancies French. Even _with _the number of lucky coincidences."

"But, the paper-"

"The paper is garbage unless we know what it is."

* * *

They walked up to their humble lab-

Where a black government issued SUV was parked outside.

"Oh great, what did we do _now_?" Cooke complained.

"Well, there's only the one SUV. So it can't be much." Markus hoped.

They approached the door, which swung wide open.

"There you guys are." Agent Juliet greeted, while sifting through some papers on the desk.

"Can... We help you?" Markus raised an eyebrow.

"Six week inspection." She bluntly reminded.

"Six week _what _now?" Cooke stepped back.

Juliet held up her copy of the agreement, "Page thirty one, section F, paragraph eight: I, the recipient, agree to participate in regular lab inspections every six weeks in assurance to the providers that the agreements made in sections A, B, C, D, and E have not been violated."

Markus took the paper and read it closely, "...I'm guessing A through E is all the safety agreements and assurance we aren't making weapons?"

"Correct."

"Huh." Markus flipped through the pages, "Maybe I should've read it before taking your word for it."

"Any other interesting loopholes we should be wary of?" Cooke folded his arms.

Juliet shook her head, "Aside from being able to take back government property if we deem it necessary, there aren't any that come to mind."

"_Come _to _your _mind?"

"Cool it, Cooke." Markus set the paper down, "I'll go through it later. But let's give this Agent a tour of our stomping grounds, yes?"

The area wasn't horrid. Over half of the lab was just flat, empty grounds for testing robots. The entire lab was 5,000 square feet, which was a pretty admirable size; compared to the lab they were working in, which was about 2,000 square feet. Most of the mess they have in there is actually from moving the robotics team down to the lab rather than the classroom they had. A risky move, considering there's a nuke below their feet and the only way to stop it is to covertly go into a virtual world.

"...Your lab isn't violating any rules." Juliet checked off on a list, "Well, yet."

"_Yet_?"

She pointed to the closet, "I need to see back there too."

"Ah, naturally."

Markus walked over and opened the closet door. Juliet snooped through their shelves, and eventually came to the secret trapdoor that was disguised as a safe.

"Is there anything in this safe since we last checked?"

Markus shook his head, "We don't even have keycards. We can't open it."

Juliet visually scanned the room and nodded, content with her search. "Have a nice day, gentlemen."

She left the premises. Cooke and Markus waited until they heard her engine start up and for her to leave, then quietly opened the trapdoor leading to Matriks, and scanned for bugs. None found.

"Phew..." Markus exhaled.

"That wasn't as nearly as bad as last time!" Cooke sighed in relief.

Markus woke up the computer, and connected to Jeremie.

"Hello?"

No response.

"Helloooo?"

"Bonjour." Jeremie smirked, "Shall we get started?"

"Do we have a game plan?" Cooke requested, "I've only been fighting for less than six weeks, I'm not what you'd call "experienced" by any stretch of the imagination."

"It's simple, really." Jeremie started, "You get in, open the door, go into the Cortex, install the virus, and pray you don't get caught by the ninjas."

"Now, you see," Cooke paused, "I can do all that, but it's the whole "ninja" part that has me confused and somewhat terrified."

"Don't sweat it. As long as you have enough time to get the virus in, the ninjas can devirtualize you all they want and it won't matter. That's also why we made the MantiSkid autonomous." Jeremie proudly boasted.

"I don't like that you've made so many precautions because you're expecting me to be devirtualized." Cooke shook his head, "Not exactly the best moral booster."

"Sorry, but even the five of us struggle to fend them." Aelita stepped into frame.

"No, I understand, but I just have really bad feelings about this mission if ninjas are involved." Cooke clarified, "Alright, we're wasting time. Let's go do this."

* * *

Cooke shot out into the Digital Sea.

"Hey, where's the other four?" Cooke queried.

"Probably in bed." Jeremie looked down at his watch, "It's pretty late for us, we might have to leave you for a little bit to get back to our dorms before lights out."

"I'm surprised they're not here to witness the fall of XANA." Markus chimed in.

"Well, it would be the _third _time. And it's not very exciting the third time around." Aelita joked.

Cooke chuckled. He kept going on the course towards the Cortex, and eventually came up to it.

"Alright, I'm here."

"Okay." Jeremie leaned forward, "Markus, are you ready to launch the decryption algorithm?"

"Ready."

"Alright, Cooke, activate the digital key"

Cooke pressed his hand on a pad to his left, and a beam shot out of his ship into the XANA-shaped lock.

Markus immediately booted up the decrypter, and it started working.

"Tyron probably beefed up his firewall, so this will take some time." Jeremie advised, "Enough time for us to get back to our dorms because we have to go _now_."

Jeremie left his seat, grabbed his backpack and left. Aelita picked up the earpiece, "And whatever happens in the Cortex, you've never met us and you have no idea what Lyoko is or who we are."

"Got it." Cooke waved.

* * *

After probably half an hour of fighting Tyron's firewall, Cooke got in!

"Alright!" Cooke celebrated, "This certainly took awhile!"

"I'm surprised our French friends aren't back yet." Markus worried, "I hope they didn't get caught by whoever monitors the halls."

"They're fine." Cooke promised, and flew the MantiSkid up close to the core and parked it next to the main path, "Alright, get me on land!"

Markus transferred Cooke to the surface, where he took a quick look around.

"Okay... No ninjas so far." Cooke eased up, "So... You know how to open the door to the core?"

"Aieee... No." Markus bit his lower lip, "Jeremie never gave me instructions."

"Lovely..." Cooke sat down with his back against the door, "I hope we haven't been noticed yet."

* * *

A few minutes of silence passed, with Markus carefully watching the screen.

"Hello?" A familiar whisper sounded.

"Oh, thank god you're finally back." Cooke stood up.

"Sorry. We were caught up with Jim. Gave us a lecture about being in our rooms before curfew."

Markus checked his phone, which was 4:10 P.M., "You guys were only a few minutes late for curfew?"

"No, we got into the building right on time. But we weren't "in our rooms" by curfew." Jeremie complained.

Cooke shook his head, "Okay, whatever, how do we open this door?"

"Okay... You're not gonna like this." Jeremie stressed under his breath, "Markus, you need to activate five towers and channel all that power into Cooke."

"Say _what _now?!" Cooke complained, "You're gonna juice me up more than Markus is during finals week?!"

"Jeremie, that kind of power can destabilize his code and splatter it over the Internet!" Markus protested.

"I know, but it's the only way I can think of!" Jeremie rubbed his head, "As long has he channels all that energy into the door in eighteen seconds, he won't destabilize."

"If I knew that was your plan, I wouldn't be here right now." Cooke rejected.

Suddenly, the door began to open up.

"Oh, wow. I didn't feel a thing!" Cooke smiled.

"Uhh, I didn't open it."

"Neither did I! Hide!"

The MantiSkid lowered under the platform, and Cooke took a risky move and hid behind a rock sticking out of the side of the doorway.

Suddenly, five green and black ninjas came out with swords drawn, looking for him.

"Wow... They look straight out of Tron." Cooke whispered.

"Except they're the red guys, not the blue." Markus added.

"How did they know we were here?"

"How do you think?" Markus quipped, "Thirty minutes to bust through their firewall and you didn't think they'd have _some _sort of notification?"

Cooke rolled his eyes, "Fair point."

The ninjas, now satisfied with their work, ran back inside and began closing the doors.

Cooke hopped over the rock and ran alongside the door, watching the ninjas step on to the teleportation pad and leave the room.

"I guess I better make my move!" Cooke slipped between the crack of the large round door into the room, "I'm in!"

Markus clapped and thrusted his fists into the air, "Great! Great!"

The door slammed shut.

"Uhh, new problem," Cooke ran his hands across the smooth door, "Now I can't get out."

"We'll figure that part out later." Jeremie insisted, "Right now, get in that room!"

* * *

Cooke spawned into the room with multiple platforms and uninviting spiked walls.

"This... Is really not that impressive." Cooke critiqued.

"Be careful, the spikes in the wall will come out and devirtualize you if they're active!" Jeremie warned.

"Y'see, _this _is why I wanted to make a plan _first_." Cooke stepped out into the room.

No wall spikes of doom.

Cooke drew his short sword, and hopped down a platform, "Nothing yet."

"Can you spot the console?" Jeremie queried.

Cooke looked around, and saw an egg-shaped device with a screen about eight platforms away, "I believe so."

Cooke hopped across the platforms without issue, and came to the console.

"Okay, Jeremie, what do I do?" Cooke scanned around, perplexed.

"Markus, send him the virus keycard." Jeremie directed.

"On it."

An ominous red card spawned in front of Cooke. He immediately grabbed it, "Okay... Now what?"

"Now put it into the center of the console." Jeremie strung along.

Cooke shoved the card into the console, which sucked it right in.

"Okay, it's in." Cooke relaxed, "Was... Was that it?"

"Yep."

"Uh huh."

Cooke smirked, "Well, _that _was anticlimactic."

The console began flashing red.

"Oh, me and my big fat mou-"

"AHA!" A voice filled the chamber, "Quelle surprise!"

The face of a rather beat scientist popped up on a large holographic screen, one that Cooke could only assume was Professor Tyron.

Tyron looked down at Cooke in surprise, "Heh. Recrue nouvelle, je suppose?"

Cooke looked up, completely flabbergasted, "I... I... I don't... What did you say?"

"Oh? American?" Tyron laughed, "I take it you aren't so good with the French, yes?"

"Not really..."

"Système d'éducation Américain, bien sûr." Tyron heckled, "American, tell me, what is your name?"

"Give me yours first."

"Ah, how rude of me not to introduce myself to guests. I am Professor Tyron."

Cooke already knew this, but he had to keep an illusion going on.

"Professor-"

"Ah ah!" He interrupted, "What is your name?"

"...Call me Cooke."

"Cooke, excellent." He smiled, "Now, you may have noticed I've blocked all your communications with your buddies."

"...Okay, yeah, I now notice that."

"Now, be honest, how do you, an American, know about Lyoko and the Warriors that fight for it?" He put up picture profiles of all the Lyoko Warriors' avatars.

Cooke looked at it dumbly, "Wait... You mean there's _more _people out there?!"

Tyron wasn't impressed, "You can't fool me. That virus you just sent me? I've already stopped it. You see, I was anticipating Mister Belpois would use that information to make that custom molded virus. You can't play the coincidence card, Mister Cooke. I know Belpois made it and gave it to you to infect me with."

Cooke was taken aback by this, "Sir... I don't know who this Belpois person is."

"I am NOT a fool, Cooke!"

"Sir, I'm here to stop XANA. He is _literally _tearing apart my city as we speak!" Cooke improvised, "I personally made this virus from the information I stole from him to attack him!"

"And just how did you know where to find him, Cooke? A hunch? Or a hint?"

Cooke cocked his leg back, "I _followed _XANA, duh!"

Tyron laughed, "You don't honestly expect me to believe that, do you? If you were here to eliminate such a... How do you say... _Petty _thing, you would've uploaded an _anti_-virus, not a virus."

Cooke folded his arms, "XANA is NOT a "petty" thing! It's not meant to be taken lightly! You are _completely _oblivious to the very real damage it has caused!"

"You and your little friends have caused very real damage to decades of _my _work! You don't think I'm just going to let- I don't even know why I'm talking to you!" Tyron picked up a radio, "Squads one through eight, show our guest the door!"

A ninja landed right next to Cooke. Cooke pulled the console over, and knocked the ninja off balance. The ninja regained his posture, and Cooke had already bolted to the next platform up, where a ninja fell on him from above.

"Jeezus!" Cooke knocked him off his back, and finally drew his tiny sword.

He looked around, seeing probably a dozen ninjas spawned in, swords ready.

"Alright... This isn't good."

Half of them sank into the platforms they were standing on, leaving the rest to charge him.

"Definitely not good!"

He couldn't predict where they all were, and he didn't have anyone to help.

He did the only thing he could, turn his sword into a bladed whip and charge.

He whipped through the first ninja, and his leg was caught by a floor ninja, effectively tripping him and dropping his weapon to a platform below.

Cooke was now surrounded by three ninjas, and one floor ninja holding his leg still.

"Persistent little jerks, aren't you?" He kicked the hand off him and rolled off the platform, barely catching the ledge.

He pulled himself up, and looked up at the ninja staring down at him from the bottom of the platform above.

"I can't compete with this..." Cooke brainstormed, "I need to be able to predict their movements... But they're not machines..."

The ninja absorbed back into the platform, giving Cooke an epiphany.

He closed his eyes, and concentrated until he saw a light haze, slowing down time and turning his eyes orange. "Extrasensory."

He opened his eyes, now clearly seeing all the ninjas, his weapon, and the exit.

First rule of order was to get his sword-whip back. It was only two platforms over, but he could see a ninja waiting to strike. He looked up to the exit, which was clear.

"Out numbered, out matched, out sworded, I gotta make a run for it." Cooke decided.

He hopped up to a clear platform, and was immediatly joined by a ninja with blades closing in. With extrasensory still active, Cooke dodged the two swords and redirected the force to swing the ninja around, right into the path of one of his leaping buddies.

Cooke jumped onto another platform, making sure to dig his heels into the awaiting floor ninja.

Thankfully, there was a comm crackle overhead, "He... Co... ke... Esta... Don't... Door!"

"Markus?!" Cooke called out, snapping out of extrasensory, "I need an escape plan, now!"

"I can't... Room... Out!"

"Get out of the room?!"

"Ye... Don't... Trans... Door!"

"_Don't _get out of the room?!"

"GET OUT!"

Cooke panicked, and jumped across to another platform, missing it entirely and grabbing onto the edge.

"Oof!"

A ninja came through the bottom of the platform, and stared down at him.

Cooke stared blankly back at him, "Uhh... Wassup?"

The ninja slashed at him, hitting one of his arms.

"Oww!" Cooke pulled himself up, and clutched his arm. _It may not be real, but those things sting!_

He leapt up to the last platform to leave the core, and got on the teleport pad with three ninjas hot on his tail.

* * *

Cooke got into the transfer room, and looked back up towards the giant closed door.

"Cooke?!"

"Markus!" Cooke breathed, "I need out of this room!"

"I-I'll figure out something!"

The three ninjas spawned in on the teleport pad, now putting an unarmed Cooke into a corner.

And thankfully, the door began to open.

"Wow, great job!" Cooke complimented.

"What?"

"On the do-"

A familiarly large blade struck through the opening, one that could only belong to a XANA-spawned William.

"...I NEED A SWORD! NOW!"

"I need some time!"

"I DON'T HAVE IT!" Cooke peered out of one of the openings, "-WAIT!

"What _now_?!"

"How long would it take to prepare a transfer sequence into the MantiSkid?"

"Uhh..." Markus looked at his screen, "A few seconds, if you're close enough."

"Don't disappoint me!" Cooke jumped through the widening crack in the door, and immediately jumped over the edge towards the digital sea before William could intervene.

He leaned his body towards the MantiSkid hidden under the pathway, and closed his eyes.

"TRANSFERRING!"

_Thud!_

Cooke opened his eyes, he was in the MantiSkid, "Phew! Good job! Good job!"

"Now get out of there!"

Cooke wasted no time, and dove into the digital sea.

* * *

The scanner doors opened, and Cooke stepped out.

"Oh... My... God..." Cooke slammed down into a chair, "We were hopelessly unprepared for that mission."

"I'm glad you got out." Markus relaxed, "I lost the signal as soon as you put that keycard in, I didn't know if you were going to come back to our scanner if you devitualized."

Jeremie popped up on the monitor, "Bad news, the virus didn't work."

"Yes, because he was expecting it." Cooke explained, "He knew you were going to use the stolen data to make a custom molded virus, so he _prepared _for it. As I recall, didn't I say something about this happening?"

"No, that was me." Markus reminded, "But, the point still stands."

"Does he believe we're behind the virus?" Jeremie checked.

"Oh, _profusely_." Cooke confirmed, "I think the only illusion I had going for me was my very American accent."

"Well, as long as we aren't caught together, we'll keep sending you solo." Jeremie bit his lip, "Risky, but necessary."

"Maybe if we got another person to join us?" Markus hinted.

"NO! Let's just keep risking ONE life!" Cooke cemented.

"Unfortunately, this means we'll have to come up with a new method or virus to take out XANA." Jeremie grabbed his head, "That could be a few months!"

"That..." Cooke tensed up, and eased back, "...Sucks."

"But!" Jeremie interjected, "Good news for you guys!"

"For us?"

"The super computer finished decensoring the document you guys had!"

"Excellent!" Markus celebrated, "Send it over!"

"However, it comes with bad news," Jeremie smirked, "This document is document three of eight."

Markus sat back in utter dejection, "You mean... We're missing _seven more_ documents?!"

"Dude, it doesn't really matter." Cooke shrugged, "This document probably has more information than we actually need. We're just looking for what this project is and who ran it, I imagine it'd be pretty prominent throughout the document. Especially considering how many pages it has! What is it, like a few _thousand_?"

"Something like that."

"Well, you're gonna be in for quite a shock." Jeremie warned.

"How so?"

Jeremie breathed in, and exhaled, "Sit down, you're not gonna want to be standing."

"We're... Both sitting already..."

Jeremie pushed his glasses up and looked closely at the screen, "Oh. Okay, turn to page three hundred and thirteen, and read paragraph eight."

Markus scrolled through the pages, and stopped at 313. "Okay... Paragraph eight... Project MATRIKS shall be overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

"Okay, the CIA is a bit of a surprise, but not mind blowing. We _are _in Washington." Cooke shrugged.

"Keep reading."

"The project advisors are Franklin Dupou, Ph.D in Atomic Physics; Kraig Bangalter, Ph.D in Quantum Physics; Tera Turner, Masters in Electrical Engineering; and-" Markus choked up, and turned ghost white.

"Wha- what is it?"

Markus shook slightly, "Shelda Fercaow, Ph.D in Software engineering."


	9. Incomprehensible

Code Matriks

Episode 9: Incomprehensible

By B1ockh3d

Author's note: Hey! I know I'm a week late, and I'm afraid the next few chapters are going to be like that. School started back up for me, and balancing everything out has been tough. Also, I have some pretty big plans for the next three or four chapters, and I want to put my best effort into them, and good work takes some extra time. Just you wait!

* * *

Cooke and Markus sat in their room, completely quiet, refusing to address the choking-ly large elephant in the room.

"How's that EFX 1000 going?" Markus improvised.

"Good."

More silence.

"So... How long are we not going to talk about you-know-what?"

"As long as possible." Cooke laid back, "Or until we come up with an idea to make this... Make sense."

"How is someone who is our age a Ph.D and enrolling through a BA course?" Markus bluntly asked, "Much less, how is she credited to a top secret government project?"

"How is this project lost?" Cooke broke, "How did not one, not two, but _three _government agencies lose such an enormous project?"

"I think we should confront Shelda." Markus stood up, "She's obviously connected to all this, we need to get her in a corner and demand answers."

"Better yet... Why are they looking for it? If it's lost, how do they know it exists? If it is what they're looking for... Oh god, what else is lost out there the would leave a radiation trace?!"

"No, that's a stupid idea! She must be hiding for some reason, if we called her out that might ruin the illusion of... Of... Of what? That we don't know? Or whatever she's hiding from? Where was I going with this thought..."

"Who would've erased this project? This can't be some sort of clerical error, someone must have erased it from three databases with full intent to. But it doesn't beat good ol' fashion paper, much harder to erase when it's kept in a secure facility. That's probably how they still know about it..."

"But... Pink hair like Aelita? Connection to a government project? How long did she expect to stay hidden? Unless... Maybe that's her plan? She doesn't plan to stay hidden? Maybe she's trying to get our attention? She knows we'll figure it it out sooner rather than later... Who is she really?"

"Where are those documents now? What are on the other seven? What even _is _this project?"

Markus looked down at Cooke, who stared blankly back, "I think we have this completely under control."

"Totally."

Markus sat back down, and they resumed their silence session.

Cooke stroked his chin, "We need to connect this all somehow."

"Oh, what?" Markus scoffed, "The government papers _listing her name_ isn't enough?!"

"We can't prove its the same Shelda Fercaow." Cooke shrugged.

"With a name like _Shelda Fercaow_, do you really think it's a common name?" Markus rubbed his temples, "She, like me, can't find her name on a cup in a gift shop. Guaranteed."

"Okay- we need something PHYSICAL to link her into this." Cooke clarified.

"What should we do? Go raid her room?"

"No, no. We can't even get into the female dorms at this time a night."

Markus checked the time, 8:31 P.M., "I think campus curfew is like eleven, actually."

Cooke rolled his eyes, "Maybe if we go to sleep, the answer will come to us."

"It's still quite early, man."

"Well, you do whatever you want, but today has left me EXHAUSTED." Cooke flopped into bed.

* * *

Cooke cracked open an eye at the dead of night, seeing Markus already went to be.

_Man, ever since we blacked out our window it's impossible to tell when it's morning..._

He lead his eye over to the only lit thing in the room, the alarm clock. Which read 3:13 A.M.

_Ooo... Wonderful. First class is at ten tomorrow... I'm gonna get like thirteen hours of sleep..._

He turned over, and tried to go to sleep.

_3:13 A.M... Huh. 313. Page 313, paragraph 8..._

Cooke turned back over, the clock now read 3:14 A.M.

_Room 313 is our room too... Funny._

Cooke opened both of his eyes, still drowsy beyond mobility.

_But... Wait... 313... 8... 31313131318... Shelda... Paper... Oh my god we are total morons!_

Cooke shot up, fueled with adrenaline, and shook Markus, "Markus! Markus!"

He groaned, "Whhhat is it..."

"I found our connection!"

"I... Cool? What are you taaaalking about?"

"It's been in our face the whole time! The readers have probably been _screaming _at us!"

"Dude... You must still be tired..."

Cooke walked over to Markus' desk and unzipped his backpack, pilfering through it.

Markus reached over to a small wood plank acting as a desk attached to his bed and grabbed his glasses, "Okay... What's going on?"

"I _need _to see that paper right now, because I have a massive hunch."

Markus leaned down and turned on a lamp, "It's easier with light."

"Ahah... Thanks."

Markus groggily slumped out of the top bunk, right as Cooke pulled out the piece of mystery paper from his backpack.

"Behold! The thing that ties everything together!" Cooke presented, "This will tie in Shelda to the super computer, thus proving she's involved in this government project!"

"And what do we do with it?"

"It's some sort of computer code or encryption, right?" Cooke hinted, "We'll plug it into the computer and figure it out from there."

"...When we finish classes, alright?"

Cooke nodded in agreement.

"Actually... I got a... "Thing" running right now and that'll take time... Tomorrow then." Markus pulled himself back up into his bed, right as his laptop started beeping, "Ugh... What now...?"

Cooke opened his laptop, "...Oh, he stays quiet for a couple weeks, then comes back in the middle of the night!"

"Who?"

"Our man of the orange towers, JAER." Cooke leaned up next to Markus' bunk, "Let's go do cleanup before he gets more data."

Markus, quite obviously aggravated, got out of his bed, and went straight to the mini fridge, "Want a cold one?"

Cooke shook his head, and looked back at the clock, "Actually... Alright, yeah, hit me."

Markus slammed two energy drinks down, and popped them both open, "Don't chug it all at once."

* * *

"I've been having these strange ideas lately and by lately I mean like five minutes ago but I digress I'm thinking maybe I should've been an English Major but it's really only good if you want to be a teacher but I'm good at writing and stuff maybe I'll become a famous author- OOOOO! I CAN WRITE ALL ABOUT THIS ADVENTURE WE'RE HAVING!"

"Good lord, man..." Markus dragged Cooke along the path to the lab, "I always thought the mile-a-minute clichés were just a Hollywood thing, but apparently not."

"DUDE WHAT SHOULD I CALL MY BOOK?!"

"By any and all means, NOT "Code Matriks." People might mistake it for some weird fan fiction of the Wachowski brothers film- and DON'T WRITE A BOOK ABOUT AN ABANDONED GOVERNMENT PROJECT."

"Fun fact! They're now the Wachowski siblings because one of them went through sex reassignment surgery."

"Yes, Lana Wachowski." Markus sighed, "I told you not to chug the whole thing!"

"Time is money man we can't waste time sipping energy drinks like fifty year olds sipping wine in Napa Valley we'd be wasting money not that we're being paid to save the world to begin with but still evil doesn't wait to be slain!"

"_God _do I hope your metabolism resets after you get virtualized!"

* * *

They made it to the lab in record time, and quickly started up the procedure.

"Transferring... Scanner..." Markus punched the enter key, "Aaaand Virtualization!"

Cooke fell to the surface of the ice sector, "Alright... Alright... Caffeine effects don't carry over. I'm good."

"No surprise," Markus yawned, "You shouldn't feel exhaustion while in Matriks either."

Cooked scanned the area, "Ooookay, where to?"

"Head towards the plateau in front of you, and head northeast from your position."

"You see, _those _directions I understand."

"And I'll be sure to make it more clear in the future, but for right now, keep moving!"

Cooke ran across the plain of ice, and approached the area near the tower.

"Now, before I begin my assault, are there any monsters on screen?" Cooke flexed.

"Mmm... Yes. Two mecha wolves and four mecha birds."

"Okay, so it actually _is _an activated tower and not a ploy to draw me here."

Cooke side-stepped against an icy wall until he could see the top of the tower, glowing orange. The four mecha birds were firing at the tower, while the two mecha wolves stood guard.

"Isn't it strange how they attack towers they're activating?" Cooke shrugged.

"I don't know their thought process, but I do know we need to deactivate it." Markus gestured, "JAER has sixty-eight percent of the computer encryption downloaded total so far."

"And after this?"

"About seventy percent."

"Wonderful." Cooke exhaled slowly, "What do?"

"Do what do you." Markus laughed, "The birds are pretty preoccupied firing on the tower, and while I would recommend stopping them, that's why the wolves are there. To stop you from doing that."

"Sooo... Where does this leave us?"

"Kill as many birds as you can from above before the wolves getcha."

Cooke shrugged, and drew his sword, "I was kind of hoping for a more illustrious plan."

"Man, I don't know. I've never been in your shoes, I don't know what it's like out there. If you have a better plan, do it and not die at the very least."

"I'll do what I can." Cooke snuck over to a rock overlooking the back of the tower, and readied his sword, "Alright, let's drop in!"

Cooke jumped down, striking one bird and whipping the sword around and hitting another. He landed in front of one of the wolves, who lunged towards him and knocked him against the wall.

The wolf readied to fire a laser from its mouth, giving Cooke ample time to retract his sword and deflect the attack.

"Take it easy! You're already down to sixty life points!" Markus warned.

Cooke sprang up and cut the wolf down with a tactful lunge, "What's the download percentage at?!"

"Sixty-nine percent!"

Cooke ran around the tower with the other wolf chasing behind him, "Okay! And ideas to stop those birds and get this mecha wolf off my tail?!"

"Yes!"

Cooke circled the tower one more time, and the Overboard spawned in front of him, "Thanks!"

"No problem!"

He hopped on and climbed upwards, ditching the wolf and climbing upwards towards the birds.

He swung his sword outwards, grazing one of the birds. He veered left, following through with the swing and hitting the other.

Suddenly, the other bird and wolf waiting below left.

"Uhh... Why are they leaving?" He asked, "Enemies usually only leave when worse things are coming..."

"I... Don't see anything on screen." Markus shrugged, "Go deactivate the tower before worse things come and so I can fall upon my pillow before classes in like four hours."

"I hear ya." Cooke smirked.

He jumped off the Overboard and entered the tower without issue, along with deactivating it.

No issues whatsoever.

* * *

"I don't understand what JAER is doing." Cooke complained, "Attacking his own towers, and giving up as well?"

"Well, whatever he's up to, I don't think he's nearly as dangerous as XANA."

"He still has a way to go... Why do we assume our computer viruses are males?"

Markus shrugged, "Feels right."

Cooke slumped forward, "...My bed feels right, right about now."

The duo got back to their dorm, and went straight back to sleep.

* * *

Markus slid into his chair ten minutes before the class began, and something didn't feel right.

Perhaps it was an anticipated pop quiz? Maybe he was just now seeing all the early morning zombies called classmates? The lingering threat of a XANA attack always added a little more stress to their daily lives, perhaps they wer still adjusting. It was probably just because of the late night mission they had with JAER, who acted strangely and un-computerlike.

Or maybe it was the man in the black suit standing next to the entrance with a clear curly tube leading to his ear. That would scare some people, especially if they had their hands on classified government projects. _Especially _if it was a lost one, too.

Markus kept his cool, keeping his cool by taking a nap on his desk like all the other zombie-eyed students.

The teacher arrived five minutes late, and the man in the black suit didn't budge.

"Good morning class, sorry I was late. I was held up in a meeting." The teacher brushed off, "We have some visitors from the FBI here today, and don't be alarmed, they aren't looking for oregano."

The whole classes chuckled, except Markus. Now he knew he _was _here for a reason, and it wasn't for educating the Political Science students.

He quickly moved his flash drive containing the LyokOS software from his backpack and stuffed it into a zippered pants pocket. Better safe than sorry.

The class began as usual, and Markus kept getting the eerie feeling of being watched by the agent, but he kept his composure. _Perhaps he's recruiting._

"Alright everybody, partner up with the person behind or in front of you." The professor requested, "We're going to do a warm-up exercise on basic conversation, talking in only past tense."

Markus looked forward, but saw the girl in front of him was already partnered up, meaning he could only pick the person behind him.

Shelda.

_Man, it doesn't get more basic than talking to her._

He shallowly turned around, to an empty seat.

"Huh?" Shelda was _gone_?

A black teen pulled up next to him, "Heh, I don't have a partner either."

"Oh, well, I need one. I'm Markus."

"Damian."

* * *

Markus left the class, somewhat mystified by the unusual circumstances behind the reason the agent was there. But all will be solved soon, as he was stopped the the agent on the way out.

"Sir, can I ask you a few questions regarding one of your classmates?"

"Uhh... Sure?"

The agent took Markus out into the hallway, "I have a few questions regarding a miss Shelda Fercaow. Would you know anything about her?"

"Well... She sits behind me." Markus pondered, "She has nice pink hair, orange eyes... Really quiet. Keeps to herself. I think she's single too."

The agent wasn't impressed, "Thank you, but that isn't very helpful to our investigation."

"Investigation?" Markus fake laughed, "What could a quiet girl with pink hair _possibly _do to get investigated?"

"That's classified." The agent firmed, "Has she mentioned anything regarding government activities, including threats?"

Markus shook his head, "No."

"Has she been acting suspicious over the past fourteen days?"

"Nothing different about her since I first met her."

The agent looked down at his notebook, "How old would you say she is?"

"Oh, my age. About nineteen."

The agent looked back at his notebook, puzzled, "Interesting... Are you certain?"

"One hundred percent."

The agent stroked his chin for a solid thirty seconds, "...Okay, thank you for your time."

"Glad I could be of assistance." Markus quickly shuffled out of there.

* * *

"Wait, so, the government is looking for Shelda?" Cooke puzzled, "Why would they be looking for her? If _it _is a "lost project," how come the government seems to be pulling up behind us?"

"I don't know, man." Markus shrugged, "It's possible it's still lost, and all they know are the people involved. So they're tracking down the people to find _it_."

"So... Why her? There are three other names on that list, I'm sure they're easier to find too."

"Well, actually," Markus pulled out a tablet, "I was doing some research on those people. Two of them retired in remote places in Europe, and the other one is still working in a major lab institute."

"See? Easy to find."

"Two of them are in _remote places_. It's pretty clear they wanted to disappear."

"Well, now that's just ridiculous. Why would a wonky project scare them into obscurity?"

"Well, maybe we can ask the other guy." Markus chuckled, "He's in France, a few miles from Kadic."

"What _are _the odds of _that_?" Cooke laughed, "Talk about a major plot convenience!"

"Uh, sure. Whatever. Kraig Bangalter is the guy, and he's working at the _Institut de France_ as a teacher teaching Quantum Mathematics." Markus pulled up his file on screen, "About seven miles from Kadic."

"Huh. So, what's our play?"

"Right now, nothing. We can't do anything- er, we SHOULDN'T do anything right now."

"Why not?" Cooke huffed, "The more we wait, the more data JAER takes! Who knows _what _he'll do once he finishes downloading it all!"

"We need to find him, first of all!" Markus reminded, "Just because we know where he works doesn't mean we know if he's there!"

"We can just wait around his office."

"And how to you propose we get to France?"

Cooke laughed, "With all the stuff we can do? Man! Why would we _bother _going to France? We'll hack into his computer and introduce ourselves! That's how!"

Markus pulled himself up to the super computer, and began Cooke's suggestion, "...It won't be that easy. It's an institution that takes their security seriously."

Cooke looked up at the screen, "Hmm... You can still get in though, right?"

Markus pushed up his glasses, "As long as I can locate and infiltrate their hidden servers, yeah."

Cooke snapped his fingers, "I have a better idea. Who is someone we know in France that is very keen in quantum physics and computer programming?"

"...Yeah, that'd be a lot easier." Markus closed his tablet, "I'll call Aelita later. Now, what petty thing should we focus on?"

"Well, where's Shelda?"

* * *

Cooke tore down the taped-up black curtain, and Markus hopped up on his desk with a pair of binoculars.

"Careful now, don't let any of the girls see you." Cooke advised.

"Yeah, yeah. I won't make the same mistake you made while watching the girl in 208." Markus heckled, pressing the eye pieces to his face.

"Her curtains were wide open! _Anyone _in the commons could've seen her practicing yoga!"

"Yeah, but none of them were holding binoculars pressed against glass like a creeper."

"Oi..."

Markus guided his eyes over to Shelda's window, "...Nothing but an empty room."

"Maybe she was taken into custody already?"

"Doubtful."

Cooke looked below at the commons, but didn't see any pink hair, "Shelda just gets weirder and weirder."

Markus jumped back on the ground and put away his binoculars, "Maybe that's the point. We're so busy concerned about her, we aren't focusing on other things."

"I dunno, I think she's more important than we might be estimating. We still have her codes to crack, codes _she _wrote by _hand_."

Markus' laptop started beeping.

"Oh gah- _again_?!"

Markus opened his laptop, "...No, actually. Good news. Or, bad, depending on the results."

"What did you do?"

"The "thing" I had running!" Markus shifted his laptop over, "Remember that strange port I found to encrypted areas of the computer?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I figured other sections of the computer _must _be other sectors, and other sectors means more towers." Markus lead.

"I'm following..."

"Well, I reverse engineered the program and rebuilt it to accommodate a tower scanner through the port."

"...Ohhh so you can see if there's any activity!"

"Exactly! And here are the results!"

The tower scan immediately picked up an activated tower.

"Well... One tower where I cannot go. I hope that's harmless."

Then, a second tower popped up as activated.

"This doesn't bode well..." Markus cringed.

And rightfully so. A third tower popped up, along with a fourth, a fifth, a sixth...

All of the encrypted sectors had all of their towers activated, a whopping 135 towers! All activated! And there was nothing they could do.

"Holy crap..." Markus buried his face in his palms, "There's about _seven more sectors_! JAER isn't trying to gain access to the encrypted sectors to increase his powers, he's trying to gain control of the ice sector to finish maxing his powers!"

"This... Isn't good." Cooke calmly shook his head, "Not good at all."

"We need another person!" Markus shoehorned.

Cooke threw his arms down, "No! We need to figure out how to clean the mess!"

"Which would be easier with another person! What if you can't go to Matriks?"

"No! And that's final!" Cooke ignored, "We can do it on our own!"


	10. A Negative Plus Sign (Part 1)

Code Matriks

Episode 10: A Negative Plus Sign (Part 1)

By B1ockh3d

Author's note: Just so everyone knows, this is probably my last story I'm writing. Not chapter! Just, last fan fiction. I'm writing on a whim of ideas, and a passion for Code Lyoko, because this was the show that got me into writing stories. And I really want to do a _good_ job to pay homage to this series. I've lost the drive to write stories long ago (when I really started growing up) but I'm not abandoning my last story like I did my others, which is why I've given myself a timeline of a year to write and finish Code Matriks. But, this is the part where I beg, and I want to say that reviews do give me a little extra drive to hurry up! So please review! I've seen the traffic numbers, and I know I have a measurable audience. Please!

* * *

"Shelda has been missing for two days, and government agents still watch all the classes she was scheduled for." Markus explained to Jeremie over a camera chat.

"What do you think will happen if she's caught?" Jeremie posed, "She must've done something more serious. Aside from the obvious, of course."

"I don't know if they'll arrest her or something worse." Markus shrugged, "And Matriks is a pretty serious issue."

"Yes, but there has to be something we're missing. You said there were three people here in the European continent that were involved in the project, right?"

"One of whom is not far from Kadic." Markus reminded, "And we really need to find him, hopefully to shed light on this."

"And we will." Jeremie promised, "But, as I was saying, if the scientists were all coming from other parts of the world, wouldn't they be picked up at the airport as soon as the wheels hit the tarmac?"

Markus paused, "...What are you implying?"

"Well, Shelda has been living in the United States for some time, according to the tax records. How haven't they found her yet? Why now? She couldn't have been hiding abroad." Jeremie hinted.

"So... You're implying the only logical explanation is that she's a person that only exists on paper?" Markus squinted.

"Precisely."

"But... She's in my class?"

Jeremie smirked, "Have you ever seen her _outside _of class?"

Markus pondered, "...Yeah. One time in the cafeteria, one time in her room, and one time I bumped into her in the commons."

"And that's it?"

"Yeah." Markus nodded, "Funny story, the one time I bumped into her, I got some sort of coded paper."

"Wait, what?" Jeremie puzzled, "I didn't hear about this."

"Well, quite frankly we don't know what it is. We don't know if it's related to Matriks or Lyoko or whatever." Markus shrugged, "We know it's significant, and it probably goes to a program, but we wouldn't know where."

"Why didn't you give it to us?"

"We should've, in retrospect. But we didn't because of the same reason we don't fight XANA, except in the Cortex, it doesn't involve your mission."

"Just because it's not our mission to defeat JAER doesn't mean we won't help. We've helped this far, we're willing to help with anything." Jeremie assured, "We're both in the business of saving the world, and it's a lot easier with more support."

Markus tilted his head, and nodded, "Fair point."

"But, do send that coded paper along when you and Cooke get back to the lab."

"Absolutely... Wait, why would we come to the lab later?"

Jeremie leaned forward and read something on the screen, "...We've only been talking for fifteen minutes and we haven't even gotten to the main point of this call."

"...Which is?"

"I figured out a new way to get around the door of the core in the Cortex." Jeremie informed, "It's a lot safer. We also need some data taken from there."

"So, it's a mission." Markus rolled his eyes, "You could've just said that. What kind of data?"

"The first time we thought we defeated XANA, we used a multi-agent program that seeked and destroyed any trace of XANA on the network. I want to find out how he survived, and if he's building up another Replika network." Jeremie explained.

"Seems pretty straightforward. I'll talk to Cooke."

* * *

"They want me to go _back _there?!"

"Yes, for reconnaissance-"

"Yeah, _reconnaissance_!" Cooke mulled, "I'm not saying I'm shocked I have to go back, but I was hoping it was to _destroy _the Cortex and _destroy _XANA!"

"What's wrong with recon?"

"Nothing, except Tyron is _expecting _us at any and all times!" Cooke flopped into his bed, "Doing recon is hard when you know you'll be seen!"

"Get in, get the data, and get out. Other than those ninjas, I don't see much of an issue."

"How about the fact he'll jam our communications and make it impossible to operate as a team?"

"You did fine last time, didn't you?" Markus encouraged, "Extrasensory did an effective job locating those ninjas, probably even _better _than my map of the arena can!"

Cooke huffed, "I'll do the mission, but it reeks of danger."

* * *

It was noon. Markus was wrapping up a class, and that left Cooke plenty of time to eat lunch alone, and fix up a synthesizer module.

Cooke picked up a sausage breakfast burrito from a hot rack and paid for it, and trudged back to his room.

He headed up a flight of stairs, and a familiar pink-haired girl stood before him at the top.

"Ahp! Shelda!" Cooke jumped, "What are you doing in the male dorms in the middle of- where have you been?!"

"I don't have a middle name." She panned, emotionless. She then walked up the next flight of stairs.

Cooke stood there, baffled, "Don't have a... Huh? Shelda! Wait up!"

He ran up the next flight, and didn't see her. He sprinted down the hall, but all the doors were locked. He went up the next flight, and the next, but couldn't find her.

"What on earth... How did she do that?" Cooke lingered, "What does that mean?"

He went back down a flight of stairs and walked to his room, and called Markus.

"Hey, I just got out. What's up?"

"Markus, when Shelda introduced herself, how did she do it?"

"Huh? She said "I'm Shelda Fercaow." And sat down like a robot."

"Is that _exactly _what she said?"

"How much more specific can I be? She's not very talkative. That's what she said."

"Did she say her full name? Including middle?"

"Huh..." Markus buffered, "I believe that's what she said."

"Are you _sure_?"

"Cooke, what is this about?"

"Get back to the dorm NOW."

* * *

"You MET her?!" Markus freaked, "What happened?!"

"She looked at me, said "I don't have a middle name," and vanished." Cooke shook his head, completely baffled, "It was so weird."

Markus sat down, thinking intently, "Lessee... She introduced herself, I remember thinking it was a weird name, then got creeped out she knew my full name."

"What did you think was weird about it?"

"It just seems like an old name... Like, it fits in. Gertrude, Bertha, Patsy, Terri, and Shelda. But I've never heard of someone with the name Shelda before."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah. Fercaow... What kind of name is that? Where did it come from? I can really only assume her parents or ancestors did a legal name change somewhere along the line."

Cooke leaned back in his chair, dejected, "Well, darn... I was really hoping we were onto something."

"Oh, we'll figure it out." Markus assured, "We've figured out this much so far, we'll keep putting the puzzle together."

Cooke lifted his head forward, "Hey, do you think Aelita would have a better understanding? I mean, she and Shelda are practically identical."

"Maybe she can enlighten us." Markus stroked his chin, "Huh... If she and Shelda are similar, and Lyoko and Matriks are similar, maybe there's something that ties the four things together?"

Cooke pondered, "...Well, I do recall in Jeremie's diary logs something about the creator of Lyoko. Going back to the source is always the place to start, and I'm pretty sure that would be half the equation right there. It was... France... Hopper?"

"Man, you actually watched those? I got bored after he went on about dubstep killing everyone." Markus laughed, "But what about this France guy?"

"It isn't much help now. He sacrificed himself to help Jeremie gain enough power to launch his virus and destroy XANA." Cooke sighed, "Which really limits our theories. But it's still a place to start."

"And we still have XANA and JAER. They're two peas in a pod, but one can kill, and one can _almost _kill."

"Hopefully today we'll find the resources to kill XANA!"

* * *

Cooke shot out into the open digital sea.

Everything was quiet.

"Jeremie, Aelita, are you there?" Cooke called out.

"Oui." They broke in unison.

"I'm about fifteen minutes out, but could you guys answer some potentially personal questions?" Cooke requested.

"How personal?" Aelita asked.

"I... Kind of... Screw it. I'm just gonna say it. Can you tell Markus and I more about France Hopper?"

"_Franz _Hopper... Oui." Aelita nodded, "What do you want to know?"

"Is there anything we should know that wasn't covered in your logs?"

"Actually, can you cover _all_ the important stuff? I haven't watched the logs..." Markus nonchalantly dropped.

Aelita sighed, "When Jeremie first turned on the super computer, he found me sitting inside of Lyoko. We've since learned I got there by my father virtualizing the both of us. My father was Franz Hopper."

"So, you're Aelita Hopper?" Markus proposed.

She shook her head, "Franz Hopper was a false name. His real name was Waldo Schaeffer. My mother is Anthea Schaeffer."

"Ahh, so you're Aelita Schaeffer." Markus concluded.

"Wait, _is _your mother? Present tense? Don't mind me asking, but... Where is she?" Cooke queried.

Aelita looked away, "She's... Working with Tyron."

Cooke stopped the MantiSkid, "Wait, you want to destroy the one thing keeping you in contact with your mother?!"

"No," she corrected, "I want to destroy XANA. We _need _to destroy XANA."

"Don't lose sight of the mission." Markus nudged.

Cooke put the throttle and turbo back on full, "Well, if I see her, I'll... Pretend I don't know her."

* * *

Cooke came upon the entrance to the Cortex.

"So, do we have to do that whole decrypting thing again?" Cooke examined, "Because I don't like waiting around in such a tiny ship."

"Only if he changed the firewall. And I don't believe he has." Jeremie assured.

Cooke activated the key, and a beam shot out of his into the tunnel door of the Cortex, and it opened right up.

"Good call." Cooke noted, and steered the ship inside, "So, tell me, how am I going to get through the door to the core of the Cortex? Heh, try saying that five times fast."

"I'm going to instruct Markus on how to transfer you past the door." Jeremie simplified, "Basically, we're going to beam you inside the room from the MantiSkid."

"Oh. Seems easy enough." Cooke shrugged.

"Well, one wrong number and I could be transferring you into the digital sea!"

"I suggest you don't do that then!"

Cooke brought the ship right up to the door of the Cortex's core.

Jeremie leaned forward, "Ready?"

"Ready!" Markus and Cooke affirmed.

"Okay, take the X and Y coordinates of the MantiSkid and put it on a plane. The core should be zero on the grid."

"Got it."

"Carefully beam him three meters forward, and two meters down. You should be close enough for the MantiSkid to perceive the door as a hollow object."

"Alright... Ready to beam, Cooke?"

"Beam me up, Markus!"

Markus confirmed the actions, and transferred Cooke. Successfully! Now they don't have to worry about how to beat it!

Well, except to get out, of course.

"Alright, heading into the definite deathtrap." Cooke announced.

"I'll have eyes on you, but he'll cut the comms." Markus reminded.

"I know. I'm not letting it slow me down though!" Cooke confidently strolled up to the teleportation pad, and entered the core.

* * *

Cooke arrived back into the familiar room, without a single ninja in sight.

"You guys still there?" Cooke called out.

"Yeah. For now." Markus responded.

Cooke breathed a sigh of relief, "Alrighty then... Let's do the thing."

The console was only a few platforms over, Cooke glided over them with ease. He held his hand out.

"Keycard?"

"Right, right." Markus scrambled, and spawned in a blue keycard into Cooke's hand.

"Alright, wish me luck!" Cooke pushed the card in, and data popped up on screen.

"Good lu-"

The sound cut. The screen turned red, and closed every window.

"Figures."

"Cooke, so pleasant to see you today." Tyron interrupted.

"Hi, hi." Cooke rolled his eyes, "I'm in a bit of a bind for time, so, can you let me do my stuff and get out?"

"Hah! Do you really expect me to let you raid my systems?"

"Not particularly, but I was hoping to catch you on a good day."

Tyron laughed, "Do not think your snark will save you."

Cooke shook his limbs out, and drew his sword, "Okay, send some guys for me to beat up then."

"I look forward to talking to you." Tyron closed the window.

Cooke looked around, and saw ninjas beginning to spawn. He spun his sword around, and extended it into a whip, "Okay, bring it."

A ninja charged towards Cooke, who switched over to Extrasensory and slowed down his perception of time. He dodged a lunge, and pulled the ninja closer to slice it in half.

"C'mon..."

Cooke took notice of a ninja above him, ready to jump down to the same level. He retracted his blade and prepared to block-

Failing to notice a ninja creeping from under the platform he was standing on and holding him in place.

"God... KNOCK IT OFF!"

Unbeknownst to him, a new ninja entered the field. One donning blue and black colors, armed with a bow and arrow. He took aim at the restrained and unaware student, and fired.

"Ahg!"

The arrow hit, and shot out a cable that wrapped around Cooke and began shocking him.

"AHHHHHH-"

* * *

"JEREMIE! HELP!" Markus panicked, watching Cooke's life points drop rapidly. 70... 60... 50...

"I don't know what to do! I don't know what's happening down there!" Jeremie scrambled.

40... 30...

Markus breathed in, and contained himself, "He's just devirtualizing, let's just... Ugh. Just do it again."

20... 10...

"This is very unusual..." Jeremie eased, "Cooke will have to tell us what happened."

...0

"I'll ask him now!" Markus turned his chair towards the single scanner in the room, anticipating Cooke's arrival.

But, the scanner wasn't warming up. The doors were still wide open, and empty.

"Uhh... I think there may be a serious issue here." Markus noted.

"How serious?"

"His status is shown as devirtualized, and our scanner hasn't processed anything." Markus rubbed his head, and quickly ran a diagnostic.

Jeremie looked over at a screen with security cameras. Specifically, the one in the scanner room, "...Nobody at our end."

The diagnostic finished, showing no signs of failure.

"Well..." Markus anxiously stared at the scanner, "If he's not in our scanner, and not in yours, where is he?"

* * *

Cooke struggled to open his hazed eyes. He could hardly see anything. He remembered being devirtualized by that weird arrow, but this was a new feeling.

He slowly came about, now feeling his feet being dragged along, and two people holding him up by the arms.

"Markus... Wha hahahppened..."

He opened his eyes a bit more. He could make out the unfamiliar tiled floor, and saw his hands restrained with plasticuffs in front of him.

"Where ehm I..."

He was forced into a chair at a table, and heard a distinct door slam behind him. He rolled his head around, not seeing anyone in the room.

"Markus... Thank you for dragging me to class..." He babbled, "I think I forgot my backpack though..."

He stretched out a bit, and everything was a bit more clearer. He could tell he was not in a classroom, or with Markus, but alone in a large storage room. And just now he processed that his _hands are restrained_.

"What happened...? Where am I?" Cooke patted his pockets, realizing his phone was no longer there, "What is going on?!"

The door opened up, and Tyron walked in and sat himself across from Cooke.

"My apologies, I just prefer face-to-face conversations."

Cooke held up his restrained hands, "I'm just _digging _the hospitality."

"Cooke... If I'm not mistaken, you're barred from the scanners for twelve hours, yes?"

Cooke rolled his eyes, "Yes."

"I'm surprised at how well you're handling this situation." Tyron complimented.

Cooke furiously glared at him, "Daily occurrence. I'm used to it."

Tyron frowned, "Look, this wasn't my first choice-"

"Oh, that is straight up bull and you _know it_."

"I don't understand your American slang, but I assure you, it's no "bull." Don't worry about it." Tyron promised, "You're stuck here for twelve hours, so I suggest you get along with us and make this painlessly easy and fast."

"You _kidnapped _me, and you expect me to comply?!" Cooke let out a single laugh, "That is a stupid assumption."

"You either comply, or we'll rip the data from your mobile." Tyron bluntly warned.

"Good luck with either one."

* * *

Markus stared at several dozen windows, looking for... Anything!

"Oh god..." Markus grabbed his face, "Do... Do you think it's possible XANA got him?"

"No." Jeremie rejected, "The Scyphozoa can only modify the brain. He has a devirtualization status, and his brain wasn't affected."

"Then... Could he have somehow ended up in the digital sea?"

Jeremie shook his head, "His avatar was devirtualized within the core. Unless Tyron, or XANA, possess the capabilities of permanent devirtualization without the use of the digital sea, it's impossible."

Markus stood up and stepped away from the desk, "...Those ninjas are people, right?"

"Yes." Jeremie confirmed.

Markus sat back down and cracked his knuckles, "Then they have scanners too."

Jeremie leaned back, "Meaning... Tyron _could've _kidnapped Cooke by forcing him through his scanners. That's outrageous!"

"Well, it might actually be ideal if they do what I hope they do." Markus smirked.

"And that is...?"

"Open a data link to this computer."

Jeremie leaned forward, "Why on earth would you want that?!"

"It's a two way street!" Markus reminded, "I've made a special encryption that'll block his access, while we use the data key we already have from the MantiSkid to break into his super computer."

Jeremie looked in awe, "That's... Genius. How can you do that?"

"Simple. They just have to plug in his phone."

* * *

A ninja came in and set Cooke's phone down in front of him.

"...I take it you're not having much luck breaking into my phone?"

"Unlock the device." Tyron demanded.

"It's a five digit code, man!" Cooke laughed, "It's as complex as a lock on a soda machine!"

"It is encrypted."

"And your big fancy quantum computer can't figure it out?" Cooke critiqued, "Thank Markus. He did that to my phone. Dude went a little nutty about our security when the government showed up and nearly discovered our computer."

"Unlock it or we'll expose you and the other warriors to their respective governments." Tyron threatened.

Cooke laughed, "Empty threat! If you report us, you'll be found, and I'm sure they'd love to hear how you kidnapped an American citizen and forcibly smuggled him to Switzerland."

Tyron let out a single chuckle, and looked pleased, "Who said anything about Switzerland?"

Cooke realized his error, "Uhh, I'm only guessing based off of the star positions and waning moon. Am I wrong?"

Tyron smiled, "No, you're spot on. Except the moon is waxing. But, I find it strange a mechanical engineering student with no windows could do that. The only way you'd know is if someone told you this already, _Christina_."

"Oh, screw _you_." Cooke spat, "That's just plain rude."

"That's your legal name, isn't it? Christina?"

Cooke leaned into the table, "I'm not sharing that story, certainly not with you!"

"Well, given your twin sister's name is Gareth, I'm going to assume your paperwork got mixed up in the delivery room." Tyron stabbed.

Cooke sat back down, "Yeah. How did you even get this information?"

"Same way Mister Belpois does."

"I still don't know who that is."

"Now _that _is "bull" and you know it." Tyron stared down.

"I admit nothing and I want a lawyer." Cooke looked away dramatically.

Tyron was growing impatient, "...Might we work out a deal?"

"Why should I make a "deal" with you?"

"Because you're no child, like those friends of yours. We're both men, knowledgeable in our fields-"

"If you're about to offer a job, you can take that job, and shovel it."

"...No. But I know you're currently in debt thirty thousand US dollars. Those fancy US universities are pricy, yes?" Tyron coaxed.

"Part of life."

"Well, what if I wiped that debt and any future debt you might... Accrue?"

"Yes, that's the correct word."

"Easing the pain of your government off your back."

Cooke sat back, and thought about it, "...And what do you want?"

"The passcode to your phone."

"Ohhh, right." Cooke nodded, then shook his head, "No."

"Perhaps you'd like more?"

"Like?"

Tyron shrugged, "You name it."

Cooke laid back, "...I want a BAC Mono. Midnight blue, with exposed carbon fiber details."

"Done."

"A Doepfer Modular Synthesizer set?"

"Done."

"An Oreo cake batter frappe fresh from JP Licks?"

"We can make _anything _happen."

"Really? How about a bottle of Château Lafite, 1787?"

"...Almost anything. You're too young anyways. But I am impressed with your wine knowledge-" Tyron held his hands up, "-Look, I'll make anything happen, just tell us the passcode, _Cooke_."

"Mmmm... I don't know... I was kind of hoping to get my Château... Kind of a deal breaker if I can't get it."

"I will get you a very nice Château and we shall drink together, just, tell us!"

Cooke shook his head, "Alright, fine! As long as you piss off too. One."

Tyron waited.

"...Start punching it in, it gets tricky."

Tyron grabbed Cooke's phone, and punched in 1.

"Two."

Tyron punched in 2.

"Three."

"You can't be serious." Tyron stared in disbelief, and punched in 3, 4, and 5.

INCORRECT.

Cooke laughed, "That's the combination an _idiot _would have on his luggage!"

Tyron punched in 1, 2, and 3, "Alright."

"Four."

Tyron punched in 4.

"And six."

Tyron rolled his eyes, and punched in 6, "I can't believe I'm wasting my time with you."

"Now piss off and get me my Château."

* * *

A ping appeared on a map, pointing to Switzerland.

"Ahp! Found him!" Markus celebrated, "My theory was right!"

"How prepared are you to defend Matriks from Tyron?" Jeremie queried.

"I designed a custom 512 bit AES software for our phones and Matriks using some beta code we found on here. It's not unhackable, but it'll take quite a bit of time to crack." Markus answered.

"Aren't you worried by the fact he _can _break through it?"

"Nope. He'll have a window of sixty seconds to crack the code before it shuffles and puts him back at square one, where the cycle then repeats."

"Huh." Jeremie sat back, impressed, "I'd love to take a look at it when we aren't busy."

"Yeah- oh! I got that paper Shelda shuffled into my notebook!" Markus remembered.

"Send it on over! I'll look at it later."

* * *

Tyron folded his hands, "Can I get you anything right now?"

"Give me a banana and I'll shove it someplace for you." Cooke lighted.

"I thought we were friends..." Tyron got up, completely sick of dealing with Cooke. He headed out the door.

"Wait..."

Tyron stopped, "...Anything colorful you'd like to say?"

"I'm a little cold in this storage closet. Could I... Get a jacket?"

"Hah!" Tyron laughed, "We'd need to cut your restraints to put it on, I'm no fool. I'll provide a blanket."

"Hey! I thought we were friends!"

Tyron left the room, turning to his left, "Anthea, s'il vous plaît donner notre à invité une couverture?"

Cooke puzzled at the exchange, trying to figure out what he said, then froze, "...That's right, Anthea!"

He looked around for security cameras, but found none. It _is _a closet, after all. Content, he sprung up and searched the shelves for something useful. He couldn't outright announce he knows who she was, so he had to be subtle.

He picked up some blue painters tape, "...This'll do."


	11. A Negative Plus Sign (Part 2)

Code Matriks

Episode 11: A Negative Plus Sign (Part 2)

By B1ockh3d

Author's Note: This was originally supposed to be the last part, but as soon as I crossed the 3k words mark, I realized it was better to split it up into a third part. But! This is still a critical chapter, and will be crucial to the following few chapters. Pretty exciting stuff I have planned!

* * *

Odd, Ulrich, and William stood in their pajamas before Jeremie and Aelita.

"Where's Yumi?" Jeremie asked.

"Probably still in her bed..." Ulrich yawned.

"What are we doing here so late?" Odd halfheartedly demanded.

"Tyron has kidnapped Cooke, and we have to come up with a plan to rescue him." Aelita summed.

"Back up a bit, _Professor _Tyron _kidnapped _Cooke?" William puzzled, "Why?"

"I believe it's a trick to lure us out there." Jeremie crossed his arms, "Probably to take Aelita the same way."

"Well..." Ulrich shook his body to warm up, "We can't just leave him there. Let's go!"

"No, we still have another eleven hours before Cooke can use the scanners!" Jeremie reminded, "We have to do this with tact!"

"Einstein, why did you get us ten hours before you needed us..." Odd walked over to the elevator and sat down inside it, "I'm just gonna sleep and work it out later... I can't even make any jokes right now!"

Ulrich joined him, "I agree. Even if we plan this, it'll be hours before we can save him."

William rubbed his eyes, "Okay, I'm all ears. What should we do?"

Jeremie turned his chair around, "Do you know how we took out the Replikas?"

William shook his head, "Can't say I was there for it."

"Ah, right." Jeremie rubbed his head, "We're planning on a similar procedure, and how we did it..."

* * *

Cooke sat back in his chair, waiting. He twiddled his thumbs back and fourth, awaiting a blanket.

The door opened. In walked a ninja, followed by a light pink-haired woman in a labcoat carrying a plain white blanket.

_Anthea!_

"Those ninjas look a lot doofier in real life." Cooke commented.

The woman handed him the blanket, and sat across from him.

"...Can I help you?"

"I'm merely keeping an eye on you." She answered.

The ninja moved behind Cooke to guard the door. _Perfect._

"Can I know the name of the person keeping an eye on me?"

"My name's Anthea. You must be Cooke?"

"Word travels fast."

Anthea pushed herself away from the table a few feet, "Tell me Cooke, do you know my daughter and her friends?"

Cooke shook his head, "Can't say I do... What's her name?"

"Aelita."

"Hm... Doesn't ring a bell." Cooke shrugged, "...You won't object if I put my feet up, do you?"

"Make yourself at home."

Cooke glanced back at the ninja, who hadn't moved. He scooted back, and put his feet up.

...Revealing to Anthea the word "SCHAE FFER" crudely written across his soles in blue tape.

She noticed, and nodded, "...Feeling comfortable now?"

"Very."

"That's good." She continued stiffly, "Is there anything you would like to talk about?"

"I'm getting a little hungry. It's been kind of a long day." He nudged, "I wasn't exactly planning to visit Switzerland today, and I forgot to pack a dinner."

"Don't worry about it, we have it coming." She promised.

Cooke and Anthea stared at each other, knowing exactly what they really wanted to say. But couldn't, because of the ears in the room.

* * *

"So, what you're saying is you want to send us to Switzerland as spectres, where we'll break Cooke out and send him back to the Cortex?" William summarized.

"In a nutshell." Jeremie nodded.

"Seems easy enough."

Jeremie turned back to the super computer, "Markus, how are you doing over there?"

"I'm stressing out, man!" Markus strained, "I'm worried sick about him, and there's nothing I can do but sit aside and wait!"

"Calm down, as long as you're connected to his phone you can mine data, right?"

"Yeah... Yeah."

"The best way to help him is to gain control of the security cameras, and map out a floor plan." Jeremie encouraged.

"Right..." Markus pushed up his glasses, "It'll take time, but I can do it."

"Great. Aelita?" Jeremie turned, "I... have a concern."

"What is it?"

"I think Cooke may have blown our operation already, in which case Tyron is expecting us."

"Even if Cooke didn't blow our operation, Tyron's plan is to lure us out there to save him."

"Yes, but he doesn't know _how_."Jeremie breathed, "I need your help to make a passage cloaking device for the Skid."

"It doesn't already cloak?" William puzzled.

Aelita shook her head, "Not exactly, what Jeremie is talking about is cloaking our ship from the doorway into the Cortex."

"When the Skid opens and enters the Cortex, it notifies Tyron." Jeremie clarified, "We need to get in and out without those alarms going off."

"I'll get right on it." Aelita pulled out her laptop from her backpack.

"As for you William..." Jeremie looked around, "...We should have some blankets around here..."

William chuckled, "Wake me if you need me."

* * *

The door swung open, and in came a scientist with a tray of food.

Cooke took his feet off the table, and looked down at the tray. It consisted of a grilled cheese sandwich that was obviously microwaved, some leaves that sort of resembled a salad, potato chips, and a three gingersnaps.

"...Really?"

Anthea, still seated across from him, looked somewhat disappointed, "Sorry, we're a research lab. A full fledged kitchen isn't in the budget."

Cooke bit into the sandwich, learning very quickly it was _Swiss _cheese, "Blegh! I thought we were friends!"

Anthea set down a small box of mints, and slid it over, "Here, to get the taste out."

Cooke opened it, and saw white mints bunched around a small USB drive. He quickly grabbed a mint and shut it, "Hey, thanks."

"You can keep it, I've got plenty more in my desk." She winked.

Cooke slid the box into his pocket and resumed eating his food.

"...So, what is it that goes on around here?"

Anthea opened her mouth, but noticed the ninja in the background shaking his head, "I... Would love to tell you someday."

"Ah, secrecy 'n stuff. Gotcha."

Cooke painfully ate his way through the grilled Swiss cheese sandwich.

* * *

"Hey, Markus," Jeremie perked, "Where are you in the system?"

"Still getting through the admin protocols." Markus focused.

"While I'm waiting for this Skid software to compile, can I take a look at that code?"

"Already sent it."

Jeremie opened his messages, "There it is, thanks."

"What code?" Aelita paused.

"Markus and Cooke got some sort of code from Shelda, and they don't know what it goes to."

Aelita resumed her programming, "Let me know if it turns up anything."

Jeremie found the message and opened the code, "...Interesting."

"What is it?" Markus raised.

"It looks like chunks to a directory, given the letters seeming randomly placed."

"...Meaning?"

Jeremie took a deep breath, "This code is part of a script that activates other scripts, but in a certain pattern. Like say... Script A's single purpose is to activate scripts B, D, and C in that order."

"So... It's a puzzle solver." Markus deduced.

"Exactly."

"Huh... Why would Shelda carry this around?"

Jeremie input the code, and ran it on the super computer, "...It tests negative."

"Why would Shelda have DEAD code?"

Jeremie shrugged, "I'm sure we'll figure it out. How's you luck with the cameras?"

"Well... It goes..." Markus bit his lip, "I'm in, for the most part, but I have to be very slow or I'll be caught. I'm also getting a little worried about our end."

"What's wrong?"

"I thought _people _were going to be trying to get past the new encryption because computers can't recognize it..."

"But?"

"Turns out, _one _can. Theirs. Their _computer _is decrypting it, which could make a nightmare for us in, oh, say..." Markus checked his phone clock, "Five hours and fourteen minutes."

"We need at least ten hours..." Jeremie worried, "Even with it _resetting_ every minute?"

"That's the thing, their computer is learning a bit more every time, and it goes farther every time. It'll soon beat it in under a minute."

"Do you have any active firewalls?"

"Three. But I'll work on a few more while I wait."

* * *

Cooke yawned, "I am getting quite enervated... Where may I rest?"

Anthea stared in awe, "What teenager _talks _like _that_?"

"A gentleman who needs a gentle bed?"

Anthea walked over to a shelf and grabbed a sleeping bag, "Here. As gentle as you are."

Cooke laughed, "Cold, lumpy, and makes your back and neck stiff?"

"Exactement!" She jeered.

The door opened. Cooke turned around, and watched the ninja exit the room.

"...Phew." Cooke breathed, "I was beginning to wonder how high his tolerance to bad jokes were."

"Tyron was trying to see how much you knew, perhaps he saw enough." Anthea calmed.

"Yeah..." Cooke bundled up in his blanket, "Hey... I need to tell you something..."

"Quelle?"

"...Aelita misses you." Cooke breathed, "A lot."

Anthea looked down, "...I miss her too."

"What are you doing _here _then?"

"It's... Complicated." She rustled, "I'm here to help Tyron... And hinder him."

"Hinder?"

"Yes." She nodded, "I've provided assets from Carthage, but not all of them. I see to it he never figures them out, either."

"So this whole thing... Is a ruse?"

Aieeee... In a sense." She shrugged, "I can't stop Tyron, but I can set his work back months with a single keystroke and blame software malfunction, which I also repair-"

"-Because it's the same base as Carthage." Cooke finished.

"Precisely. It's something I've been doing for months since XANA pushed over to our computer, and of course, Jeremie's worm."

"So... All that work he complained about losing... Was you?"

She looked around, "...Well, a lot of it. But some of it was due to the virus and XANA. But that made it easier to break another vase and sweep it into the same pile."

"I see..." Cooke processed, "...You wouldn't happen to know any correlation between Lyoko and Matriks, would you?"

"No," Anthea rejected, "I've never seen it or its inner workings... It would be very hard to determine any connection until I have."

"Okay... Does the name Shelda Fercaow sound familiar?"

She shook her head, "I'm afraid not."

Anthea stood up and headed for the door.

"Hey, we were just warming up to each other!"

She turned slowly, "...Please give that drive to my daughter."

Cooke looked up at the pleading woman's face, "Absolutely."

She continued, and left the room.

* * *

"I'm in!" Markus celebrated, "Alright, I should have a full blueprint in just a few minutes."

"Excellent!" Jeremie acknowledged.

Aelita picked up her laptop, "Jeremie, we have a problem."

"What is it?"

"I have a cloak algorithm mapped out, but the only way it'll work is if it has a lot of power."

Jeremie slouched back into his chair, "How much?"

"We..." Aelita winced, "...We can't have our shields up in order to use it."

Jeremi buried his face into his palms, "But we need the shields to block out the digital sea... This is a problem."

Markus stroked his chin, "...How much raw hull strength does it have?"

"Not enough." Jeremie shook his head, "It's too risky."

"Alright, well..." Markus bit his lower lip, "...Why not infect the door with a virus?"

"That's... A much better idea!" Aelita supported, "If we can't fool the sensors, we simply have to shut them down for a few seconds."

"Hmm..." Jeremie pondered, "We could transmit it through the key, and that _could _trick it."

"Then let's do it!" Markus concluded. Right then, the security cameras for Tyron's lab popped up on his screen, "Oh! He-hey! We have uplink!"

"Expertly timed." Jeremie complimented, "Do you see Cooke?"

"Hold on, I just got connected!" Markus scrolled through the cameras, "No... No... No... No..."

"Do you see anyone?" Aelita requested, hoping to hear her mother.

"...Ninjas. Lots of ninjas." Markus internally cried, "There must be at least fifty!"

"Can you find the scanner room?" Jeremie advised.

"Mmmm no... But, I can find the source of our uplink! His phone!"

"Where is it?"

Markus dug into the layout, "...In some sort of... Lab. With lots of fancy equipment. Not unlike ours."

"That must be the mainframe."

"Ooo!" Markus hyped, "I just saw Tyron leave the room!"

Jeremie pushed his microphone close to his mouth, "Follow him!"

* * *

Tyron walked down the hallway, meeting Anthea in a private room.

"Anthea, how is he?" He began.

She shrugged, "He has an unusually optimistic attitude."

"Has he said anything in _particular_?"

She shook her head, "Optimistic doesn't mean knowledgeable. I throughly believe he doesn't know anything regarding Carthage or Lyoko."

"Are you _sure_?"

"Absolutely."

"Funny," he laughed, "His phone was encrypted with software coding similar to the virus made by Mr. Belpois."

"With all due respect, he could have very well made it from existing code on his quantum computer without Jeremie's assistance."

"Oh, Anthea," he handed her a printout of several pages of code, "I'm sure he did. You forget Mr. Belpois didn't make that virus completely on his own, which is why I've now grown curious."

She peeked through the files, observing each one. "...Wait... This isn't what I think it is..."

"It very much is. Code near-identical to the base application of Carthage."

"Which would mean..."

"Anthea, just say it." Tyron rolled his eyes, "_Waldo _wrote it."

* * *

Night passed. In this time, Cooke slept, Markus didn't; Yumi got to the factory and woke everyone up from their impromptu naps, and Tyron simply waited. It was now two hours before Cooke could use the scanners again, and two hours until mission time.

"Errg..." Jeremie picked himself up off his arm, "...Oh no! Markus!"

"I'M STILL HERE." Markus bellowed with an energy drink fueled tirade.

"Did their computer get through the encryption?!"

"NOPE."

"Really?"

"I DON'T KNOW WHY, I DIDN'T TOUCH IT." Markus furiously tapped away at his keyboard, "BUT IT'S EXACTLY WHERE IT WAS WHEN I FIRST WARNED YOU."

"So, the other computer _paused _itself?"

"BEATS ME!"

Jeremie picked up his glasses and put them back on, "What are you doing then if you're not preventing a breach?"

"IT'S NOT DONE."

"What is it?!"

Aelita rubbed her eyes, "I sent him the task of the virus, because I couldn't hold on for much longer."

"You guys really need to give yourselves rest!" Yumi lectured, "What's all this about? I just got your voicemail saying it was urgent."

"You could say that, " William propped himself up, "Tyron kidnapped Cooke."

"What?" Yumi stared in disbelief, "I never thought he'd go that far! I'm sorry I didn't come sooner!"

"Euuyh... Don't worry, you only missed sleeping on cold metal floors." Odd yawned, "Einstein called us out here for a plan we had to wait eleven hours to execute!"

"What's the plan?" Yumi asked.

"Like we did with the Replikas. Go in as a spectre, find Cooke, virtualize him, and get out." Jeremie summed, "We have ninety minutes more to wait."

* * *

Tyron slammed open the door, jolting Cooke awake.

"And how did you sleep?"

Cooke propped himself up off the floor, raising his still restrained hands, now causing welts, "Not great."

"Tell me, does the name Waldo Schaeffer sound familiar?"

Cooke rubbed his eyes, "Can't say it does... Do you have my château yet?"

"Hahah... No. You're still too young."

"The Mono then?"

Tyron laughed, "I'm pretty sure you know those cars are made to order, and it's a long waiting list."

"Fine, fine..." Cooke paused, "Okay... My student debt?"

"Well, that really all depends." Tyron sat down in a chair overlooking Cooke, "Have you been honest with me?"

"You can trust me, I didn't give you a grilled cheese sandwich with Swiss cheese- unlike you!"

"Sorry, sorry," Tyron apologized, "We have no American cheese."

"Plus, bedding? I hated being left here with only a blanket and a sleeping bag."

"Should we keep you any longer, we will do better." Tyron promised.

"Speaking of which, when am I getting out of here?"

"As soon as we get past the encryption on your phone. Unless of course..." Tyron opened up a tablet that was in his lab coat, "...You'd like to enter the bypass around your security, then we'll let you go home now."

Cooke shrugged, "Dunno how. Why do you want in my computer so badly?"

"Why are you trying to hide what's in your computer so badly?"

"Because it's mine." Cooke smirked, "Tell ya what, you show me your computer, and I'll show you mine."

Tyron disapproved, "Only if you show us yours first."

Cooke folded his arms and returned lying on the ground, "Alright then. I still have some sleep to catch up on."

Tyron scowled, and left the room in anger. Slamming the door shut, much like how he entered.

* * *

"Woah- hey! I think I found Cooke!" Markus celebrated.

"Where is he?!" Aelita hyped.

"Well, I don't know _specifically_, but I just caught Tyron storming down a hallway with the face of someone who's done putting up with Cooke's snarky banter." Markus laughed, "I can recognize it from anywhere."

"Where is _he _then?" Jeremie specified.

"Let's see..." Markus looked at a floor layout, "...Second floor, main hallway..."

"Any room ideas?"

"Hmm..." Markus adjusted his glasses, "...Yes. The only rooms on this floors that do not have cameras are the bathrooms, and... A supply closet, by the looks of it."

"That must be where he is!" William chimed in, concluding the theory awkwardly.

"How long until we can dive in?" Ulrich queried.

"Get geared up. Thirty minutes." Jeremie informed.


	12. A Negative Plus Sign (Part 3)

Code Matriks

Episode 11: A Negative Plus Sign (Part 3)

By B1ockh3d

Author's note: Hey! Sorry I'm a few days late. Long story short, I was sick for the first week and had midterms the second, so most of the time I'd use for writing I used for sleeping or studying. But It's all good now!

* * *

Tyron stormed back into the supply closet, waking Cooke violently.

"CHRISTINA!"

Cooke gave him a side-eyed glare, "Piss off."

Tyron slammed his fists down on the table, "What code did you give me?!"

"For...?"

"Your _phone_!"

"The unlock code. Why?"

"BECAUSE!" Tyron pulled out a tablet, showing Cooke network activity data, "There is a _rodent _in my computer!"

"Oh... Maybe you shouldn't have done that then." Cooke shrugged, "Did you know, a bunch of computers in my country's government were infected by malware by employees plugging in USB drives they found on the ground outside the building?"

"I don't CARE-"

"Maybe you should, it was a very stupid and avoidable way to get malware-"

"Shut UP!" Tyron shouted, "Since I know you've put a _special _encryption on that phone, I know you can get past it. You have very little time."

"Or else what? You'll kill me?" Cooke laughed, "That'd make a wonderful international incident. Imagine the headlines, "American College Student Found Dead in Mysterious Lab in Switzerland." Orange would look _fantastic _on you."

Tyron grinned, "Who said anything about killing? I'd simply virtualize you while removing some key code, putting you in limbo. Then, your friends can't touch my computer without killing you. And trying to convince authorities of the truth would be like convincing a tenth century explorer that the world is round."

Cooke sat back, and shook his head. He was right. "...Alright, give me that thing."

Tyron threw him the tablet, "You have one hour, or it's virtual limbo for you."

He left the room.

* * *

"...Ohhhp! Guys!" Markus smiled, "Cooke is online!"

"He's _online_? How?!" Jeremie puzzled.

"I don't know!" Markus shrugged, "But he's in some sort of distress!"

"Oh, _really_? Cooke is in distress?" Odd quipped sarcastically, "Can't imagine why."

"He's talking to me in code... Er, no... I-hay ave-hay... One-hay... Oh my god, it's a distress signal written in piglatin." Markus laughed, "That's actually kind of funny."

"What is he saying?!" Aelita hurried.

"Imbo-lay..." A separate window popped up in front of Markus, it was a clock counting down from 58 minutes, "Uhh... Crap."

"What is it _now_?!" Jeremie demanded.

"He activated a countdown timer for two minutes under an hour and if I read this correctly..." Markus processed, "...Tyron is going to put Cooke in digital limbo when time runs out!"

Jeremie spun around in his chair, "Everyone, head to the scanners NOW!"

"Jeremie, he still hasn't reached his time!" Ulrich reminded, "What are we going to do there early?!"

Jeremie folded his hands, "Buy him time."

* * *

"Orry-say arkus-May..." Cooke mouthed as he typed, "I-hay... Ave-hay o-tay... Isconnect-day ou-yay..."

Cooke manually purged the traffic, and reset the network connectors.

He pounded on the door, "Yo! I did the thing!"

No one responded.

"I know at least one of you ugly green mongoloids are watching the door! Get me Tyron!"

He sat down at the table and waited impatiently. After a few minutes, the door swung open.

"COOKE YOU UNTRUSTWORTHY IDIOT!" Tyron ranted, "YOU SEVERED THE CONNECTION FROM THE COMPUTER TO THE DEVICE!"

"Well, _duh_." Cooke slumped back, "If you want to rid a user of a network, you cut their signal."

Tyron tensed up, "You've erased all of our progress!"

"Yes, on _breaking into my computer_." Cooke rolled his eyes, "Look, you wanted the rat out, I got the rat out. Now let me go home."

"That is not our agreement." Tyron rejected, "You're going to give us access to your computer and then we'll send you home."

"Hah!" Cooke laughed, "Make me!"

Tyron tapped the tablet, "Limbo in less than an hour, unless you comply."

"Oh, right..." Cooke bit his tongue, "Listen, it booted in safe mode, just restart it like normal and all your progress will still be there. Just continue it."

Tyron opened the door and exited, "Excellent."

Cooke looked down at the tablet, now displaying a terminal message:

static int _ref kernel_init(conn *unused)

He laughed, "Heh. Who's the idiot now."

* * *

The whole warrior roster landed in Sector 5, and began running to the elevator.

"Any news from Cooke?" Yumi requested.

"Nope." Markus sighed, "He told me he had to kick me to stay alive."

"This doesn't make sense." Jeremie stroked his chin, "What would Tyron want with your computer?"

"Data, most likely." Aelita theorized, "He probably knows the computer is Carthage based, and he'll further his own computer with any of my father's data he can mine."

"Should we be worried we linked our computers together?" Odd reminded.

"No, we can collapse the tunnel any time for any reason. Safety precaution." Jeremie answered.

Markus rubbed his head, "Man, I can hardly follow all these technical rules..."

A window popped up, indicating that Markus reconnected to the Cortex.

He pushed his glasses back up, "And now I'm reconnected. I wonder- ohhh... Clever!"

"What?" Odd piped.

"Cooke tricked the computer into thinking my presence is an error in their software! my activity doesn't show because he made the computer process my actions as a kernel panic!" Markus celebrated.

"In... Engli- er, simpler words?" Ulrich requested.

"When they reset the network hub and I connected, the computer processed me as an error. Given that the Cortex is a fairly hefty system, it'll be overlooked."

* * *

Anthea walked in, with Cooke now lying on the floor.

"What did you break?" She asked.

"What? Oh, nothing." Cooke smirked.

"Alright, what did you _edit_?"

"Again, nothing."

She cocked her leg back, "Then do you mind enlightening me on why a system that's never failed before is flashing errors?"

"Do you really think _I _know what happened to _your _fancy computer?"

"You bet I do."

Cooke propped himself up and smiled, "You'd be correct."

She rubbed her face, "Ugh- just, what did you do?"

"I'll undo it when I leave, which is very soon."

"..._Very _soon?"

"Yep. My friends are coming to bust me out of this slammer. So I made the computer temporarily incapable of detecting users." Cooke bored, "But I'll clear all that with my information as well."

She crossed her arms, "Very... Bold."

"So! Is there anything you need from me?"

She eased up, and headed out the door, "Please don't forget the flash drive."

* * *

The Skid sliced through the digital sea, full power!

"How are we going to do this?" Ulrich queried.

"Well, if you stayed awake and listened to Jeremie, you would know!" William cackled.

"Well- I know HOW, but who's guarding the Skid, and who's going to be transferred?" Ulrich clarified.

"I'm sending Yumi and William to go rescue Cooke, while the rest of you guard the Skid." Jeremie sorted.

"OooOooO! I bet Ulrich is _thrilled _with that arrangement!" Odd heckled.

"Shut up, Odd!" Ulrich barked.

"Chill, chill, I just meant you get to hang with the best Lyoko warrior!"

"Aelita?" Ulrich teased.

"No, yours truly!" Odd boasted.

"As I recall, you can't beat me!" Ulrich argued.

"Shut up! Both of you!" Yumi snapped, "You can settle this fighting monsters!"

Ulrich and Odd quieted, leaving the comms silent.

"...Jeremie?" Aelita piped.

"You're over half way there, what is it?"

"I... Would like to go rescue Cooke."

"Aw, I'm sorry, I'm not going to be _that _annoying." Odd apologized.

"No Odd, it's not you." Aelita breathed, "I really want to go there."

"Aelita... Do you think you can handle it?" Jeremie worried, "I don't want Tyron to do whatever he did to Cooke to you-"

"It means _very much _to me." Aelita emphasized, "You know why."

Jeremie sat back and mentally debated, "...Alright, who wants to switch out?"

"I will." William volunteered.

"No, I will." Yumi argued, "It makes more sense to have someone for close-combat."

"What about me then? Instead of William?" Ulrich butted.

William rolled his eyes, "Oh, shut-"

"No, I agree with Yumi." Jeremie finished, "It's William and Aelita."

* * *

The whole gang emerged from the digital sea, without any issues.

"Phew, I can't believe that worked." Markus sighed in relief.

"There one tower here and it's on the west side of the Cortex." Jeremie directed.

"I'm coming up on it." Aelita informed, "Is everybody ready?"

"Ouí!" Everyone chanted.

Aelita steered the ship next to the tower.

"Ooo..." Jeremie bit his lower lip, "It's been so long, I forgot we had to activate a tower for this."

"Is that a problem?" Odd raised.

"Yes... We didn't prepare for this." Jeremie began tapping away at his keyboard, "As soon as I activate this tower, the cat's out of the bag."

"God... Dangit!" Markus slammed his fists down, "So much for buying him time!"

Jeremie checked the clock, "...If we time this right, we can transfer him when the reset clock hits zero."

"And how much time is that?"

"About ten minutes. But because of our tower issue, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, you guys are going to have to work extra hard to guard the Skid!" Jeremie commanded, "We can't let anything get to it or our mission is a bust!"

"We'll guard it with two hundred percent!" Yumi accepted.

"Okay then..." Aelita breathed, "Docking!"

"Activating the tower for our own purposes!" Jeremie announced, "Are you two ready for transferring?"

"Ready!"

"Ready."

"Then let's transfer!" Jeremie punched the enter key.

* * *

Cooke quietly waited. The room was dreary, bleak, and boring.

"I sure hope they can find me."

_OOF!_

_AH-_

There was a scuffle outside the door! Cooke took cover behind a shelving unit, and readied to knock it over.

The door opened. Cooke peered through a hole on the structure, and saw an ominous pink glow. He saw a hand pop in, holding a floating pink orb.

"Cooke?" A familiar female voice called.

"...Aelita?"

Aelita swung open the door and scanned the room, "You can come out now."

Cooke stepped out, "...Wow, I didn't expect you guys to do your spectre thing."

"What else would we have done?" She quipped.

"Fair point. That looks _so much cooler _than however Jeremie explained it in his diary!"

William poked in, "Alright, we have Cooke. Now what?"

"We have to find the interface and transfer him in." Aelita answered.

Cooke gathered himself, "I believe that's on the floor below us, along with my phone."

"Let's move out then!"

"Not so fast, William," Cooke held up his still restrained arms, "I need... Help."

Aelita shook her hands and pointed to William, "I can't cut things."

Cooke looked up to William, with his giant daunting sword, "...Please don't miss."

"I never miss!" William boasted, and swiftly brought his blade down.

* * *

"William, you _suck_." Cooke frowned.

"Hey- I got the restraints off!"

"Yeah, at the cost of my _favorite shirt_!" complained Cooke, "I got it from Comic Con! I can't get another!"

"Well, maybe I wouldn't have sliced it down the middle if it wasn't so loose!"

"Next time, don't get kidnapped wearing your favorite shirt!" Aelita teased. Cooke rolled his eyes.

William edged into a hallway, seeing two ninjas.

"We're blocked off."

Aelita pressed herself against the wall, "Hmm... Cooke."

"Yes?"

"Lure them down here."

Cooke looked down the hall, and nodded towards Aelita. He began walking down the hall, until the ninjas took notice. He then turned around and dashed back into safety around the corner, where William raised his sword to be brought down like a guillotine.

Aelita grabbed his wrist, "Remember, those are _people_! Not XANA!"

"I know, I know." William dropped his sword next to him. When the ninjas finally caught up, he swung his sword like a baseball bat and knocked them down and out.

"...Home run." Cooke commented. Aelita motioned to move forward.

* * *

They made it downstairs into the control room with no issues. Cooke immediately ripped his phone out of the dock connected to the computer, and sat down.

"Alright Aelita, walk me through this." Cooke requested, "How do I set up a delayed virtualization?"

She reached over and took over the keyboard, "I'd teach you if time wasn't of the esse- Who's Christina?"

Cooke ripped back the keyboard, "TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! I'M WIPING MYSELF OFF HIS SYSTEM!"

Cooke finished, and handed the keyboard back to Aelita. A clock popped up, showing two minutes. She hit the enter key, and the countdown began.

"Hey! Who are y-"

The trio whipped around, and found an awestruck Anthea standing in the doorway.

"Oh _no_." Cooke murmured.

Anthea and Aelita made eye contact, for the first time in a very long time.

"Mom... Mommy?"

"Aelita...?"

They were frozen, frozen in both disbelief and exhilaration. So much to say.

"Mommy... Why are you here?"

"Aelita, I wish I could expl-"

An alarm started blaring, with red strobe lights flooding the room. Anthea, with tearful eyes, shakily ran out.

"Larry and Moe woke up." William concluded.

"And called for their fleet of Curlys, we gotta go!"

William stepped out into the hallway, and saw fleets of ninjas flooding in from both sides, "It's not looking good out there!"

Cooke shook Aelita out of her trance, "Aelita! You need to clear me a path to the scanners! I have ninety seconds!"

She shook her head to regain focus, "Er, right. We have to... Go!"

Aelita stepped out and fired two orbs down the hallway leading to the stairs, knocking down three of the six ninjas charging them. William jumped in front of her, and swung his sword, sending out a shockwave knocking the other three down.

"Go! Go!"

Cooke sprang out and hopped over the handrail, and headed upstairs. Which lead to a firm Tyron blocking their path.

"Leaving so soon?" He furled.

"Yep!" Cooke quipped, and motioned to William and Aelita to back off.

"Aw, and I just got off the phone with Briggs about your Mono." He deadpanned, "Is there someone you'd like me to meet?"

"Yeah... My fist!" Cooke swung at Tyron, who dodged it and kicked him back against the wall, "Ow! I guess I was a little too cocky..."

"Spectre translation is very fascinating, I'd sure love to talk to Aelita all about it." He stroked his chin, "Oh! Maybe I'll go flash my marriage license to Kadic and go through it with her."

"Like I would tell you!" Aelita raged, throwing an orb right past Tyron's nose, causing him to stumble back onto his rear.

"GO!" William pushed Cooke out of the stairwell over to the scanner room.

"Which one did you set, Aelita?" Cooke anxiously observed the 10 scanners.

"Three!" Aelita guided.

Right then, the third scanner began to make a whirring sound. Cooke quickly jumped in and the doors shut.

"We got him, Jeremie!" William cheered.

"Bring us in!" Aelita called.

A swarm of ninjas busted into the room, but they were too late. The room was empty, as well as the third scanner.

* * *

Cooke touched down on a platform in the core of the Cortex.

"Pheeew!" He stretched, "It's good to be back!"

"It's good to hear your voice again!" Markus exhausted, "Good GOD that was scary!"

"We're still in the haunted house, keep holding your breath." Cooke jumped up to the next platform.

"Alright... The teleport pad is another five platforms up."

"I see it, I see it."

A ninja spawned in, followed by another, and another.

"You might wanna hurry up!"

"I see them! I see them!"

Cooke hopped up another platform, narrowly avoiding a sword slash. He pulled out his sword, whipped it up two more platforms and climbed up.

"Two platforms over!"

Cooke jumped over to it, bouncing his weight off the head of a ninja sticking out of the platform, and landed on the teleport pad. Now landing him in a familiar issue.

The door.

"Aelita, you said you could open this door, right?" He called, "Aelita?"

"Cooke! We can hear you again!" Yumi relieved, "Aelita and William are out cold from the translation."

"Well, shoot." Cooke smirked, "Now what?"

"I'm sending you all your vehicles." Jeremie informed, "Odd, Ulrich, keep guard of the Skid until they wake up. And Yumi, go to the core entrance and wait for Aelita to wake up."

The three nodded, and split up. Odd taking high grounds, Ulrich riding around the area, and Yumi rushing towards Cooke.

Thankfully, the door started opening!

"Oh, fantastic timing!" Cooke celebrated, "That was qui- is Aelita still out?"

"Yes, and the door's opening?!" Jeremie panicked.

Cooke looked through the crack forming, and saw William.

"Uhh... William's out cold too, right?"

"Yes... ODD!" Jeremie commanded, "GO HELP YUMI SAVE COOKE FROM WILLIAM!"

Cooke finally saw the XANA symbol on his forehead, and stumbled back.

"Enroute!" Odd back flipped onto his Overboard and boosted over.

Cooke dodged William's giant sword flying through the widening gap, which Cooke could now see the Scyphozoa waiting just beyond William guarded by two Tarantulas. William's sword dissipated into smoke and returned to his hand.

"Uhh, new problem!" Cooke cried out, "We have unfried calimari waiting to suck my brains!"

"It is _imperative _that it doesn't!" Markus advised.

Cooke backed away from the almost open door, and turned around. There were also two ninjas, and the special blue archer ninja spawning in on he teleport pad.

"And _another _new problem!" Cooke feared, "The person who captured me is here!"

"Don't be caught by him either!" Markus added.

"Well, obviously!"

Jeremie stroked his chin, "...Actually, this could work in our favor. How far out are you two?

"Thirty seconds at the most!" Yumi answered.

Odd pulled up alongside her, "Likewise!"

"Stop!" Jeremie demanded.

Yumi and Odd halted their vehicles.

"Huh?"

"Why?"

"Yeah, I'd love to hear your plan, _Einstein_!" Cooke hunkered.

"Cooke! Lure William in and get him to fight the ninjas!"

William super-smoked past the door, towering over Cooke.

"Sure. That won't pose _any _problems _whatsoever_." Cooke sarcastically cried out.

He glanced over at the ninjas. The two green ones charged forward, and the blue one drew his bow.

He looked back up at William, who was raising his sword.

"Da-aiii can work with this!" Cooke jumped up next to William, who turned and continued his swift cut. Cooke leaned way over left to avoid it, and saw the archer getting ready to fire. He swung a roundhouse kick, which William caught.

"Heheh. Pathetic." The Willy clone grunted.

"Maybe. But no." Cooke hopped over to the right, now putting William in the line of fire.

The archer released his arrow, hitting William, which wrapped a cable around him and began shocking him.

This didn't faze the ultra-powerful clone. He turned around, grabbed the cable, and yanked the archer toward him. The other two ninjas then stopped running after Cooke, and aided their friend.

"Excellent work!" Markus complimented.

"That was surprisingly easy." Cooke shrugged.

He slipped out past this and exited into the full Cortex. Which he forgot had the brain-sucker and two creepy crawlers at the ready.

"Uhh... Jeremie, I need some help."

"BONZAI!" Odd shouted from above, pelting one of the Tarantulas.

The two monsters turned and began firing at Odd, letting Yumi slip in on the Overwing.

"Get on!"

Cooke wasted no time, and hopped on the Overwing, clinging to Yumi.

"The package has been secured!" Odd joked.

"Markus, where did you put the MantiSkid?"

"I moved it over to the tower they're docked to, no worries."

* * *

Cooke dismounted from the Overwing, and fell onto his back on the ground.

"Jeez... What a rush..."

"Hnnuuh... What's going on?" Aelita awoke.

"You were asleep for the action." shrugged Yumi, "Didn't miss much."

Odd finally showed up, "I can't believe you'd leave perfectly defeatable monsters behind! What a waste!"

Cooke scrambled back to his feet, "Alright, I'm done here. I wanna go home."

"Well heeeere's your ride!" Markus remotely glided the MantiSkid up from under the Cortex's tower platform.

"Beam me up!"

* * *

The Skid shot out into the digital sea, not followed by the MantiSkid.

"Hey, Cooke!" Ulrich called, "Where'd ya go?"

"I'm just checking something real quick." Cooke assured, and guided his ship towards the door to the core. Which, surprisingly, was still open. Along with the Scyphozoa and the clone of William. "Yep, they're still here."

"Well, yes!" William rolled his eyes, "Where else would they go?"

"Fair point. Alright, I'm coming." Cooke readied the MantiSkid to dive, but caught a glimpse of black smoke in front of the evil William, "...Hold on."

Cooke squinted, and saw black smoke carrying the blue archer ninja towards the Scyphozoa!

"What's going on?" Yumi worried.

"Ohhh crap!" Cooke panicked, "Scypho-ja- gaaaah Ninjozoa- NINJA SCYPHOZOA!"

"What?!" Aelita panicked, and immediately turned he Skid around, "Stop it!"

Cooke took aim and fired, but William deflected it. Then, a squadron of Hornets flew in, followed by three Krabs, and they all began firing.

"Aiiiieee gotta abort!" Cooke strafed right, and saw the ninja being drawn in by the Scyphozoa, and turn from blue to red, "He's gone!"

"Get out of there!" Markus yelled.

Cooke forcefully slammed the dive button, and crawled into the digital sea.

He immediately saw the Skid, and joined alongside.

"That was not something I saw coming!" Cooke freaked, "Now we have to save him! Or her!"

"He's Tyron's problem." William coldly shrugged.

"No, he's OUR problem!" Cooke ranted, "It was Einstien's brilliant idea to get them to fight each other, and now that I did that, XANA has a powerful archer on his side!"

"Which... You want to save a nameless mercenary that wouldn't do the same for you?" Markus questioned.

"Yes!"

"I'm with Cooke." Aelita agreed, "We've been through this before, Tyron hasn't. And he won't care about losing a warrior."

"Guys, we have our own problems-"

"That list grows everyday, Markus!" Cooke fumed, "This is just another task at hand!"

Markus slammed his back into the chair, "Fine. Just another task at hand."

* * *

Now back at their respective worlds, everyone transferred out of their ships.

"Well, I'm glad THAT'S over!" Cooke stretched, "I think I'll get myself a breakfast burrito... With bacon _and _sausage!"

"Now _that _is something I can get behind!" Odd commented from Lyoko.

"Maybe it's a good thing we don't have Cooke." Ulrich laughed, "Imagine feeding two Odds!"

"We've fed three before!" Yumi reminded.

"Alright, time to bring everyone in." Jeremie exhaled, "Materialization Yumi, Aelita, and Ulrich."

"Let's go get breakfast, Cooke." Markus smiled, "Materialization."

A ringing tone played out of the speakers in Markus' lab, and a red warning sign appeared in the Materializing screen.

"Materialization William, and Odd." Jeremie finished.

"Jeremie! Something's going wrong with the materialization!" Markus panicked.

"What's wrong?!"

"I can't find Cooke! _Again_!"

* * *

The left and right scanners opened, with Odd and William stumbling out.

"What... A... Day." Odd joined the trio standing in the elevator, followed by William.

"XANA really didn't hold back today." William commented.

Before Aelita pressed the up button, the center scanner closed, and activated.

Odd puzzled, "Uhh... That's not normal, right?"

"It could be XANA!" Aelita slammed the button without hesitation, and took everyone upstairs.

"Welcome to Earth." Jeremie waved, without peeling his eyes away.

"Jeremie, lock the elevator!"

"Huh? What's going on?"

"The scanner activated downstairs!"

Jeremie quickly locked the elevator, "That's strange, I can't see any activity on any scanners."

"There's definitely activity. Go to the security cameras!" Yumi assisted.

Jeremie switched over, and saw the center scanner open. Smoke filled up the cabin, but out reached a hand.

"He... Hello?!" A familiar voice called out, "Markus?!"

Jeremie pressed the mic to his face, "Markus, I found Cooke!"

"Where is he?!"

"In an abandoned Renault factory in France!" Odd snickered.

"Where's that?"

"He's in our factory with us." Jeremie clarified, "I don't know how, but now we have to wait another twelve hours!"

"Fantastic." Markus deadpanned.

* * *

Cooke staggered out of the scanner, and discovered two more cylindrical scanners in front of him, and a large door heavily bolted shut.

"Uhh... Where am I? How did I get here?"

Suddenly, the large door opened up. And inside was the Lyoko gang!

Odd waved, "Bonjour!"

"Welcome to France." jokingly greeted Aelita.


	13. L'enquête

Code Matriks

Episode 13: L'enquête

By B1ockh3d

Author's note: Hello! I'm still here! I know I've missed out on a few weeks, and I've just had a lot of both good and bad things happen. I'm sorry, it feels like all I ever use the author's notes for is apologizing, but that's just how it is. I'm back in my groove again, But due to the holidays coming up and finals as well, I wouldn't count on another chapter in two weeks. I have bigger plans for the next chapter, so I've set my deadline for Christmas!

Thanks for reading thus far, and the title translates to "The Investigation." I felt like I needed to at least translate that.

* * *

"Interesting." Jeremie analyzed Cooke's materialization code, "Nothing's out of place. All of your code is fine, there's no reason you should've materialized here."

"So, if we do this again, I should be able to go home?"

"Yeah."

"...Cooke, Jeremie," Aelita started, "Could it have been something physical that altered his virtualization code? Say, a bug?"

"Hmm... Maybe something small, with a transmitter that actively tampered with his code." Jeremie shrugged, "It's possible. Did you bring anything, Cooke?"

"Not that I can recall..." Cooke batted at all his pockets, and tapped on something metal, "...Except for that!"

He pulled out the metal case full of mints, and handed it to Aelita.

"Your mother wanted me to give this to you."

Aelita opened it up, and pulled out the flash drive, "...Thank you."

Jeremie took the tin of mints from Aelita, "...She handed this to you, Cooke?"

"Yeah. It was consolation for my dinner." Cooke laughed, "They gave me a grilled cheese sandwich made with Swiss cheese, I'm pretty sure that violates _something _in the Geneva Convention!"

Jeremie dumped the mints, and noticed a bulge in the metal backing, "Aaaand what do we here?"

He pulled it back, revealing a chip with a small antenna.

"I... Think we found our culprit!" Cooke tore the chip out, and handed it to Jeremie.

"Anthea must've known Cooke would've returned to Matriks, so she redirected him here." Yumi hypothesized.

"That would explain why she wanted me to deliver it to Aelita directly." Cooke deduced, "I was trying to figure out the logistics that."

"I'm kind of worried it's a GPS tracker. William? Could you please?" Jeremie threw it on the ground in front of William, who appropriately crushed it with his heel.

"Any time!"

Ulrich rolled his eyes, bitterly. Odd nudged him.

"It's because you don't have awesome faux army boots!" Odd stifled his laughter quietly.

"Well, now that we know what the issue was, and fixed it, what should we do?" Markus chimed in over the computer.

"It's a Saturday. We could take you to the movies!" Odd suggested.

"No, no." Jeremie shook his head, "Cooke's in our country illegally, we can't throw him out in public."

"Can't you make something up? A phony student visa or license?"

"Student... There's a thought." Cooke stroked his chin, "...Markus."

"Yes? Er, _oui_?"

"What was that place you said was a few miles from here that Kraig Bangalter worked at?"

"The _Institut de France. _It's a Saturday though, he's probably not there."

"Mmm... Maybe he is." Cooke snapped his fingers, "What time of year are we at?"

"We are roughly... Nine, ten weeks into the semester?"

"Which means his students probably took a midterm a week or two ago, and he's still probably grading them depending on his class size."

Jeremie cracked his knuckles, "I'm going to get you a student ID card."

"What happened to "can't throw him out in public," Einstein?" Odd scrunched.

"This is important, he needs more information from doctor Bangalter about Matriks." Jeremie shifted, "And NOT to go watch Carnival Zombies Four!"

"Ohhh, but it's so good!"

"Not as good as two, in my opinion." Cooke shrugged.

Odd spun around, "You like the Carnival Zombie movies _too_?! I personally love three, where Kendra kills that one zombie but drowning it in the dunk tank!"

Cooke bit his lip, "Uhh... I just said that to sound cool... I didn't think you'd go this far."

Ulrich laughed, "You clearly don't know Odd very well!"

"Hey, it's okay, I'll go back to my dorm, pick up the first three and binge them while you wait for the timer here!"

Jeremie spun around, "I... Card's done."

"...Alright then, I'm going to need two things. A method of transportation, and," Cooke pivoted around and glared at William, "A new shirt."

* * *

Cooke skateboarded down the streets of France wearing a coat he borrowed from William, and his phone in hand.

"How far is this place?" Cooke spoke into a headset.

"About four more miles." Markus replied.

"_Wonderful_. I'll look at my map app from here on out."

"Okay. Don't get hit by a car!" Markus hung up.

Cooke dialed Jeremie, "Hey, Jeremie."

"You're about four miles away."

"I _know_." Cooke miffed, "I'm not calling about that."

"What do you need?"

"I was hoping you'd take a look at the code we got from Shelda."

"Oh! I've actually done that already."

Cooke stopped in front of a crosswalk, "And?"

"It appears it's some sort of directory. What it goes to, I don't know."

"Did you run it?"

"Yeah. It came back negative. I don't even know for sure that's what it actually is."

"Well... What did you run it on?"

"Our super computer. And if it can't find anyth-"

"_Your _super computer?" Cooke interrupted, "Did you run it on mine?"

"No."

"Well, there's your problem!" Cooke's light turned green and he continued onwards, "It can't find files if it's searching the wrong drive!"

"That's... A valid point. I'll send it along to Markus."

"Alright. I'll take care of business here. Seeya." Cooke hung up.

* * *

"Man, I can't believe we didn't think of this." Markus rubbed his forehead.

"Admittedly, we _were _stressed out at the time." Jeremie justified.

"Fair enough. I'll give the directory program thing a shot."

Jeremie sent the program, which Markus promptly ran.

"Now, we wait." Markus leaned back.

Not 30 seconds later, a dinging sound rang from the speakers, indicating a result.

Markus pushed his glasses up, "...Huh. I got over a dozen files?"

"Incredible!" Jeremie cheered, "What's on them?"

Markus opened several up and stared down each line, "It... Looks like garbage."

"What do you mean?"

"It's just random letters and numbers, I can't make any sense of it."

"Maybe I can. Send them on over."

Markus sent Jeremie the files, who also quickly reviewed them.

Dead silence.

"Sooo... Any guesses?"

"...No... Aelita?!" Jeremie shouted, "Voir ça!"

Aelita quickly joined Jeremie in front of the monitor, "Quel?"

"Voir! Voir!"

Aelita squinted at the screen, then her eyes shot open wide, "Cela ne... Veut pas le codage je _pense _qu'il est, est-il?! _Franz Hopper_?!"

Markus waved his hands, "Hey! What is _it_?! I don't know what you're saying!"

* * *

Cooke strolled up to the front desk, where a woman was working diligently on some paperwork.

"Hey, so, I'm a student here, but I'm kinda new, so... I'm looking for Professor Bangalter?"

She looked at him, dumbfounded, "Quoi?"

"Oh, right, I'm in France..." Cooke stroked his chin, "Uhh... Office de... Kraig Bangalter?"

She pointed to a sign on the wall, showing all the professors and room numbers. Kraig Bangalter, room 131.

"Of course it's room one thirty-one..."

* * *

Cooke walked around for half an hour, trying to decipher French words and find the office. Luckily, it wasn't hidden or tucked away in some corner of the campus.

He opened the door to the office, and saw a man with flat black hair working on his computer with his back turned.

"Mes heures de bureau ne sont pas le week-end." he shrugged off.

"I have absolutely no idea what you just said."

He broke away from his computer and side-glared Cooke, "Then you're attending the wrong school."

Cooke stepped in, "I'm actually just visiting. From afar. Came here to talk to you, actually."

"Please make an appointment and we can talk." He continued working.

"Well, you see," Cooke clasped his hands together, "I'm not here for very long, and I just need to ask you one question."

"Make it quick."

Cooke took a deep breath, "What does M-A-T-R-I-K-S stand for?"

His fingers stopped moving, and he froze up entirely.

"I don't understand the question."

Cooke rolled his eyes, "Sure you don't. You also don't understand why a computer that doubles as a nuclear bomb is sitting in a basement in a lab in the state of Washington DC. Right?"

He pivoted his chair around and pointed at the door angrily, "Out!"

Cooke backed through the doorway, "Right. Of course you don't."

"OUT!"

"It's gonna be a shame when JAER takes it over and sets it off! KA-BOOM! There goes the White House with our Commander in Chief! _Oh say can you seeeee, by the bomb's furling light~_"

The man bit his tongue, "...In."

Cooke smiled, stepped in and shut the door, "Care to set the record straight?"

He shook his head, "I do know the project."

"Gee, what a surprise."

"But! I merely helped build it. I'm afraid I'm quite useless when it comes to anything involving the power on."

Cooke sat down, "What is Matriks?"

The man pulled a filing cabinet drawer all the way out, "To be quite honest, I don't know. I do remember the essential functions of it, but it ultimately went to waste when _it_ happened."

"Ah yes, the cliché "it" incident... And what is _it_?"

He took a breath, "Look, there was three of us. And some fourth person we never met."

"Let me guess... Shelda Fercaow?"

He looked at Cooke in bewilderment, "Who?"

"The... Fourth person?"

"I guess. I don't know that name." He shrugged, "They supplied the base for Matriks. From where, I don't know. But it looked like it was copied from another project, or maybe a prototype."

"You mean Carthage?"

He leaned back in his chair, "Why did you come here if you know more than I do?"

"Because I don't know what Matriks was _for_!"

"Oh, right." He pulled off a strip of tape on the backside of the drawer, revealing a memory card stashed under it, "Here are some of the documents they had us sign. I kept a copy in case I had to cover myself."

Cooke took the memory card, "...Why are you being so helpful?"

"Because ever since whoever Shelda is locked us out, it's caused nothing but trouble. I'd rather solve it and hopefully get my lab back in the United States."

Cooke held up his hand, "Hold on... Didn't JAER lock you out? Like he's locking us out?"

He shook his head, "I have no idea who or what JAER is."

"And you think _Shelda _locked you out?"

"I know so." He stuffed the drawer back into the cabinet, "They programmed the entire thing. One day, we showed up to work on it, and everything was locked out. All eight test zones."

"...What were you testing?"

"A new form of super artificial intelligence. It didn't work very well, actually."

Cooke stared, stunned, "And you said you didn't know what Matriks was. How did it fail?"

"Well... We aren't quite sure." He paused, "The concept of this project was creating R-class intelligence from the ground up. Just making certain parameters and letting it do its thing."

"Wha... What's R-class?"

"R-class is roughly equivalent to human intellect." he pulled out a piece of paper and started drawing diagrams, "Y'see, when most people hear "artificial intelligence," they think of War Games or 2001: A Space Odyssey. But truthfully, there are many variations. M-class would be military, such as drones. S-class would be system automation, like SIRI or Cortana. But R-class, which is real or "true" intelligence is one that has hardly been tested."

"How come?"

He shook his head, "It's dangerous. A computer learning vial cues from humans can be catastrophic. We are an inherently violent species. Look, if we could teach a robot to love, it could just as easily learn to hate, and that could end with a horrifying outcome."

"So..." Cooke snapped his fingers, "What were you guys doing differently?"

"Aha! Good question." He turned the page over and kept drawing, "Now, how did we as a species grow our many languages? Innovations?"

"...I don't really know."

"That's because you've been doing it all your life. You learn from other people! Other cultures! Music, movies, radio, almost anything!" He breathed, "We made eight different worlds with beings that were created under minimal guides, and learn from each other, instead of us. From there, we can accelerate and predict evolution. Like a sort of... Forecast for the human race."

"Hold up..." Cooke grabbed his own head, "Let me get this straight, Matriks was just a big game of My Sims?!"

"No, no. More like Spore, or No Man's Sky."

"Okay, so... Why did my government want R-class artificial intelligence?"

He laughed, and rubbed his fingers together, "It's all about the _money_! But, if it had worked, we'd be decades ahead of other countries developing similar technology. You see, the more the intelligence grows, the better we can predict where the human race will go. And with that information-"

"-we can better prepare ourselves for what can happen."

He nodded, "With this knowledge, your government could predict a revolution years before it could happen, and prevent it."

"...So, a crystal ball."

"Exactly." He tore the paper in half and crumpled it up, "But, we were locked out of the project by someone or something, and then the project was abandoned."

"Right, Shelda." Cooke rubbed his chin, "...How did someone unrelated to Carthage get access to the entirety of it, and make it into what it is now? And how did JAER take over?"

He raised an eyebrow, "How did you _get _here?"

"The... Uh..."

"Don't tell me you used the matter manipulator. It hasn't been tested on people or animals yet!"

"...Yeah, I believe you're talking about the scanner?"

He cradled his face into his palm, "That was not smart. I didn't even think that thing worked."

"Then... Why did you build it?"

"It was in the schematics with detailed explanations sent from... Huh. I guess that was Shelda too."

"Everything keeps coming back to her..." Cooke pondered.

"Yeah... Hey, if you went into the matter mani- er, "scanner," in America, how did you get here in France?"

Cooke looked at him, wide-eyed, "Uhh... Uh oh."

* * *

"Incredible." Jeremie kept analyzing the code, "I can't piece it together, but that's just how he was."

"So, what is random bits of code written by _Franz Hopper _doing in _our _computer?" Markus puzzled.

Jeremie shrugged, "Much less, how did Shelda write code that pinpointed it out?"

Aelita peaked over Jeremie's shoulder, "I think we all keep forgetting the fact she looks exactly like me, but older?"

Jeremie and Markus paused in unison.

"Yeah, it's pretty freaking weird." Markus broke.

"How did your government get ahold of Carthage?" Jeremie continued.

"I don't know, but it was credited in the document."

"Hm... I hope Cooke has luck."

Right then, the door to the elevator opened up to Cooke standing there...

...With a professor.

"Wow..." Kraig awed, "This is extraordinary!"

"Cooke, did you-"

"Yes Jeremie, I brought Doctor Bangalter along." Cooke shrugged, "I didn't have much of a choice!"

"Just- Doctor..." Jeremie calmed down, "Please keep this a secret."

"Are you kidding?" He fawned over the holographic display, "I'm half-tempted to ask if I can rent this place!"

"Well, it's a lot more dangerous than it looks." Aelita advised.

"Cooke told me all about it. You guys fighting XANA, JAER, and lots of other things."

"Cooke, why did you-"

"Look, it was game over once he asked how I got from America to France going through the scanner. I figured a bonafide doctor who'd actually like to help would be a good asset." Cooke reached into his pockets and handed Jeremie the small memory card, "And here's some more stuff."

"...Alright, whatever."

Kraig prodded at the keyboard, "May I?"

"...Sure." Jeremie carefully got out of the seat, and watched over Kraig.

"Incredible, it looks a lot like the interface for Matriks." He noted, "And here I thought it was one of its kind."

"Uhh, hello?" Markus called over the web cam, "Doctor?"

"Call me Kraig, what is it?"

"What _is _Matriks?"

Cooke pulled the screen away and towards him, "Buddy, it's a lot more than we thought."

"How so?"

Kraig cleared his throat, "It's a simulator for observing human trends, in short. Until we were locked out by the one we call Shelda."

"Huh?"

"It's like Sims meet Spore, and JAER might not be the one locking us out. I'll explain it later." Cooke rushed, "Jeremie, Markus, any luck whatsoever with that information?"

"We were just about to call you, it's scrap code written by Franz Hopper." Markus answered.

"Wait, Franz? _Franz _was involved in the project?!" Kraig scratched his head, "My god..."

"How..." Jeremie froze.

"Who is Franz to _you_?" Aelita piqued.

"He was on the reviewing committee for my dissertation. He was a true genius at the top of his field, which made it puzzling when he decided to leave and teach at a nearby boarding school."

"Well, now you know why!" Cooke splayed his arms out, "Hey, does the name Waldo Schaeffer mean anything to you?"

"Other than that last name being written on the soles of your shoes, no." He shrugged, "Saw it when you were getting in my car."

Cooke picked up his right foot, and saw the taped on SCHAE slowly rotting away, "Right, I gotta clean that..."

Jeremie shook his head, "Okay but- You know who Franz Hopper is, but _not _Waldo Schaeffer?"

"...Should I?"

"Aieeee... Nahhh." Cooke waved, "It's all good."

Kraig got out of the seat and let Jeremie back in, "Okay... This place is exceptionally fantastic."

"Hey now... Could Kraig and I see the physical computer tower to compare?"

"Uhh-"

"Yes, I'll take you guys." Aelita quickly cut in, and led both Cooke and Kraig the elevator.

"Huh." Markus grunted, "If JAER supposedly isn't locking us out, who is?"

* * *

The elevator reached the bottom floor, and the three stepped out. In front of them was a podium with a card sticking out of it, and a tall black tower with a white light glowing in the center.

"Impressive."

"It does indeed look like the nuclear warhead we have in our basement." Cooke raised his right index finger, "But, how is it powered?"

"Uranium. Remember, we had to steal some to keep me alive?" Aelita reminded.

"Oh, right. I forgot that diary."

"You... _Stole _Uranium?!" Kraig grabbed his hair, "Are you guys responsible for that Uranium theft a few years ago?!"

"Uh, maybe?" Aelita bit her lip.

"Now, Kraig, don't freak out, but the reason they did it is because Aelita here was linked to the supercomputer through XANA, and if they shut down the computer, she died." Cooke recalled.

Kraig ran his fingers through his hair, "Then... Why don't you shut it down now?!"

"Because-"

"Because I explained this in the car, Kraig! XANA resides on another supercomputer, and as long as he's there, he can destroy the world! Which is _why we're fighting him_!"

He shut his mouth, "...Well alright then."

Aelita stepped back into the elevator, "Have you two seen enough?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah..."

* * *

Kraig left the factory, and Jeremie plugged in the card.

"Hmm... He-hey!" Jeremie celebrated, "It has all eight documents! With nothing redacted!"

"You'd think the US government would have a better handle on the documents they handed out to their scientists." Markus commented.

"Well, it looks like they're all a few thousand pages. We'll get to that later."

"Soo... What do we do now?" Cooke sighed, "How much time do I have to wait?"

Jeremie checked the clock, "Another... Eight hours."

"Man, I hate this time wasting crap. Who even came up with it?!"

"Uhh, guys?" Markus tapped on the microphone, "Funny you should bring that up..."

"Huh?"

"How so?"

"I... Think I may have solved the puzzle that is Franz's code."

Cooke hopped up next to Jeremie, "And what is it?"

"It's an algorithm." Markus bit his lower lip, "I think it allows point to point transportation between two systems, or in this case, scanners."

"HOLD... Hold up..." Cooke calmed down, "You mean to tell me, we can turn our scanners into _instant teleporters_?!"

"Actually, yes!" Jeremie began a simulation on his screen of the program, "You can walk in our scanner, and walk out yours! And, possibly the opposite!"

"Which would make the countdown clock completely moot right now!" Markus smiled gleefully.

"Wait," Aelita looked up from her laptop, "Who would design such a program?"

Cooke froze, and looked down on Aelita, "...Only someone who knew Carthage existed."

"Shelda." Aelita firmed, "Who also made this code in my father's style."

"Who also looks like you..." Cooke puzzled, "Who on earth_ is she_?!"

Aelita stroked her chin, and walked over to the super computer, "Markus, she said she had no middle name, right?"

"Uh, she said that to me, actually." Cooke reminded.

"I know, but she introduced herself to Markus."

"So, what's your _main _question?"

"She said she had no middle name, but how did she introduce herself?"

"She said "I am Shelda Fercaow" and sat down like a robot."

Aelita snapped her fingers, "Exactly! But she's missing an F!"

Cooke, Jeremie, and Markus looked at Aelita strangely, "She's _missing _an _F_?"

"Ugh..." Aelita rubber her face, "Did she say my name is Shelda Fercaow, or possibly Shelda "F." Fercaow?"

Markus widened his eyes in sudden recollection, "Actually... It was the latter..."

Aelita turned to Cooke, "Cooke, your shoes."

"What about them? They're comfy and all..."

"No, _hand _me your shoes."

"I... Okay." Cooke, completely flabbergasted, took off and handed Aelita his shoes.

Aelita turned them over, where they still roughly spelt out SCHAE FFER, and started peeling off letters and sticking them on the armrest of the chair.

"What are you..."

She spelt out F FERCA, leavin on the shoe.

"Tell me, what letters am I missing to spell out Shelda's full name?"

"Uhh... L, D, A, O, and W." Cooke pieced together.

Jeremie put his palm on his head, "How could I be so blind, those are the same letters that spell out _Waldo_!"

Aelita nodded, "Shelda F. Fercaow is an anagram for Waldo Schaeffer, my _father_."

"Oh my god." Markus finally tuned in, "It all makes sense now. Why Shelda looks like you. Why that code works. Why she gave us that middle name hint- albeit, not very clear. He built this computer under the guise of a helpful project, but he then locked everyone out, and built another Lyoko for... For what?"

"And it would make sense he made that teleport code, so he could bypass Lyoko and escape-" Aelita choked up, "Escape the men in black."

"Wait, there's only one scan- Ohhh..." Cooke sank, realizing the predicament, "He didn't count on having another person with him."

"But, he did." Jeremie disagreed, "He never mentioned making another system, but he did say his intentions were to transfer both him and Aelita to Lyoko."

"Which means... Matriks must have built _after _that had happened." Aelita pondered.

"That would also explain why Kraig didn't ever see him, or "Shelda," in person. Because he was on Lyoko without a physical form." Cooke theorized, "And he probably picked those three based on their knowledge and location. Using things such as Kraig's dissertation as a subtle job interview."

"And Shelda looks like me... Because Shelda is my father and he was leaving a clue!" Aelita teared up, "This must mean Daddy's still alive! He must be using a spectre that looks like me!"

"Don't pop out the champagne yet, we still have to figure out if JAER is the one responsible for all these data attacks." Markus reminded, "And, I have the program ready to run. Maybe we can continue this conversation when Cooke comes home?"

"Absolutely. Cooke, are you ready to disembark France?"

"Yes, I'd love that. It's been too long!" Cooke headed towards the elevator, "Jeremie, are you ready?"

"Of course."

Cooke went down a floor, and strolled into a scanner, "Whenever you're ready."

Jeremie and Markus simultaneously hit the enter key, and the scanners on both sides close.

"Transferring Cooke."

"Aaaand receiving Cooke!"

* * *

Markus' scanner opened, and there stood Cooke!

Cooke felt up his body, "No... Missing parts! Hallelujah! It's good to be back!"

The countdown clock suddenly sped up, going from eight hours to zero in seconds, followed by an activated tower alert.

"Wh... What just happened?"

"The story continues to unfold." Markus shrugged.

Jeremie pulled up a map of the area, "...Alright, it's an orange tower. Your specialty, Cooke. It looks like you have two mecha wolves... Attacking the tower?!"

"Yeah, they do that every time. Seems kind of backwards, if you ask me."

Aelita glanced up at the screen, "If they're attacking the tower, they're trying to force-deactivate it. If a tower sustains enough damage, it'll shut down."

"So... They're trying to deactivate their own tower?"

Jeremie shook his head, "That wouldn't make sense. What would make sense would be if those towers aren't controlled by JAER at all."

"Well... Let's just let it happen this time. See what becomes of it." Cooke suggested.

* * *

They watched for a solid fifteen minutes, and the tower shut down. Bumping up the download from 70% to 72%.

"Do you think, maybe, we're supposed to let this happen?" Cooke suggested, "Given how much we've learned in the past hour, we might have been preventing something important."

"Like...?"

"Well, we know Shelda is Waldo, right? What if those seven other sectors that we thought was controlled by JAER are actually controlled by him?"

Markus scratched his head, "Well, that would make sense. Why we can't shut the computer off, why JAER asked for help fending off XANA... Maybe JAER isn't even remotely a threat."

Cooke rubbed his fingers deep into his hair, "Geez... Everything I had sorted in my head has just been upturned. Shelda is Waldo, Waldo is alive possibly, and he tricked the US government into making such a computer."

Markus nodded, "...Lunch?"

"Absolutely! Let's get out of this cave!"

Cooke and Markus left the lab, and indulged on some real grilled cheese.


	14. Fine Print (Part 1)

Code Matriks

Episode 14: Fine Print (Part 1)

By B1ockh3d

Author's note: Hey! Merry Christmas! I meant to upload this yesterday, but for obvious reasons, I wasn't able to. I didn't want to make this chapter another multi-parter, but it was becoming much longer than I wanted it to be (originally supposed to be 4k-5k words, but I'm eyeing 7k-8k total!) and I didn't want to delay it any longer. But! I'll get the next part and *hopefully* the next chapter after that posted before I head back to school at the end of January.

Oh, and tomorrow's my birthday! And all I want for my birthday is reviews!

* * *

Cooke's alarm went off, Monday, at 7AM. He slammed it off, made himself a hot chocolate, and sprinkled cinnamon sugar into it.

Markus slowly got up, "Hnnngg..."

"How many energy drinks did you have when you were trying to save me? Because you look like a wreck." Cooke opened the mini fridge, and saw it completely empty, "Nevermind, I got my answer."

"I didn't crash... I'm just still... Sleepy..."

"Your eyelids are greener than the cans you drink from!"

"Nah man... I'm good..."

Cooke rolled his eyes. He was used to it, Markus did this every time finals rolled around.

"...Can you participate in a cohesive conversation?"

Markus cracked open an eye, "Use small words."

"I'll do my best." Cooke inhaled, "I'm afraid of Matriks."

"See? That wasn't so hard... Why?"

"Well, I have a very loose understanding of artificial intelligence, and I'm afraid of these "cultures" Kraig described."

"...Didn't he say the project was a bust? And we didn't find any other "cultures" there, so... No reason to be afraid."

"That's just the thing. I was wondering about JAER, how it fit into all of this. I'm thinking maybe JAER is one of those cultures gone rogue, and we mistook as a virus."

Markus propped himself up, "So... You're saying JAER is one of those R-class AIs, just a bad version?"

"Let's face it, no society is perfectly peaceful. There's always a troublemaker. JAER is software that evolved to be the troublemakers of the society that is... Theirs?"

"So... Yes. A bad version."

"But! This proves there is _some _sort of AI support at play!" Cooke reached under his desk and grabbed a whiteboard, and drew eight circles, "Now, remember how Kraig said they were locked out of all eight test zones, which I assume he meant sectors, but we're only locked out of seven?"

"Roughly, yes."

"What if Franz or Waldo or whoever decided to purge JAER from his little utopia by cutting out his sector? Hence why we're able to access Matriks?"

"That's... Entirely possible."

Cooke grabbed a purple pen, erased the circles, and began drawing again, "Now, how would one interface with the other sectors?"

"The passage towers."

"While they're _encrypted_?"

Markus rubbed his eyes, "Bro, you're beginning to lose me."

Cooke flipped the whiteboard around, showing his drawing of a purple tower, "The purple tower! That _must _be the interface with the seven encrypted sectors!"

"_Must _be?"

"When I first stepped in, a screen popped up saying "Welcome to Matriks." It _must be_!"

Markus lied back down, "I'll take your word for it. You've been right thus far... Everything connecting back to Waldo."

"We _have _to find the purple tower again. I need to take another shot at that quiz. I'm wondering if I read the question wrong."

"Caffeeeeeeeeeeeine..." Markus cried out.

* * *

After getting Markus perked up and through morning classes, the two headed for their lab during lunch.

"I wonder if we're ever going to see Waldo or Shelda again." Cooke started.

"Well, I think he or she served their purpose. And they're wanted by the FBI. So, probably not."

"...Hey, what was on that flash drive I gave to Aelita?"

"Man, I don't know. I wasn't there."

"It's rhetorical. I'll have to ask."

Markus rubbed his head, "Say... Did you ask Kraig what MATRIKS stood for?"

"I did. And, come to think of it, he never told me!"

"I guess we'll have to find it ourselves..." Markus stopped in his tracks, "Man, we are _so boring_!"

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"All we ever talk about nowadays is Matriks and Lyoko! Even our _small talk_ has delved into that as our go-to topic!"

"Well, it's a curse we have the delightful burden of." Cooke smirked, "We build stuff, go to college, hold a social life, and save the world in our spare time. _And we can't tell anyone about it_. Except us two. And besides, it's not like anything is much different."

"How so are things not different?"

"All we talked about before this was about the robots we were building. Now we talk about how we save the world."

Markus kept walking, "Touché."

* * *

The two approached their lab, which was swarming with black vans and agents.

"Gah! Inspection _already_?!" Cooke vented.

"I kinda wished they'd tell us ahead of time so we could open the doors."

The duo walked past the vans, only to find some vans were backed in with their hatchbacks open, filled with bins of their parts and machines!

"Tell me this is a nightmare." Cooke shook in anger.

"Calm down, I'm sure it's nothing." Markus walked up to an agent, "Can we please speak to whoever is in charge?"

"That'd be me." An agent boomed from behind the two, "I'm special agent Cassinov, are you two Cooke and Edwards?"

"Yes."

"Yes." Cooke shook his head, "Agent, what is _going on_? Why is _my _stuff in the back of _your _vans?"

Agent Cassinov pulled out a thick stack of papers, "Under the agreements you both signed, you agreed to any searches and to follow the guidelines set by sections A through E. Any violations would result in repossession of government property."

"I don't get it, we haven't violated anything in our agreement. We haven't made any weapons, any threats, or joined any terrorists." Markus argued, "And- Hey! The stuff you're taking is _ours_!"

The agent looked down upon the two, "That's for us to determine. Until then, all of your robots, equipment, and patents have been assumed by the FBI under Civil Forfeiture law and suspicion of breach of contract. Making it _our_ property."

"WHAT?! _Assumed_?!" Cooke angrily stormed over to one of the boxes and pulled out their graphene battery prototype, "This wasn't even made in this lab!"

The agent took it from his hand and put it back in the box, "That's government property, son."

"Oh don't you _dare _call me _son_!"

"You better check your attitude before I take you in for contempt."

"Cooke, calm down!"

Cooke peeked in another van, "...They even took our school's robot!"

The agent handed Markus a business card with a name and number, "If your school would like to reclaim their property, tell them to call this number."

"And what about _our _property?"

The agent crossed his hands, "Our civil branch will review the evidence and case and determine if your equipment is violating the rules or not."

Cooke furiously glared at him, "And who _appoints _this person?!"

"We do."

Cooke slammed his fist against the side window of one of the vans, and stormed off.

"Cooke! Hold on!" Markus ran over, "Cooke!"

"They came here, stole our stuff, and they're getting away with it. _This isn't fair_!"

The agent walked over, "We will also be requiring any research and blueprints you may have back at your school."

"Oh, let me guess, you want all of our hard drives, flash drives, CDs, cassette tapes, laser disks, and vinyl records _don't you_?!"

Markus took a deep breath, "Is there anything _good _to tell us?"

The agent flipped through some papers, "Let's see... While under investigation, you are allowed to keep using the facility with daily inspections."

"Hold on," Cooke rubbed his temples, "You're taking our stuff, accusing us of being potential terrorists, and yet we're allowed to keep using the facility?!"

"No, don't make a fool of yourself." The agent laughed, "Your _possessions _are accused of being terrorists. You two are innocent, and may continue to use the facility."

"...Why did you seize our patents then?"

Cooke snapped his fingers, "Yeah! You take our things under "civil forfeiture" and there is absolutely no reason to take intellectual property with it!"

"_Son_, your patents are also considered blueprints, which we have authority over." The agent shut one of the SUVs, "But, you boys are more than capable of getting back on your feet. By this time next year, I'm certain you'll be twice the geniuses you are today!"

"And how do we do that without _money_?"

"Money? Did you two not receive ten thousand dollars from this contest?"

"We did. We spent it on the stuff you're taking right now!"

The agent shrugged, "Your financial mishaps are not our issue."

"So... What? That ten grand was supposed to be some sort of kickback?"

"I don't know, I wasn't involved in the contest." The agent handed Markus another business card, "You can contact your handler Agent Juliet here."

"Oh, you bet _I _will."

"Thank you, now, can you please get out of here so Cooke and I can get back to starting over?"

"Not until we have any external data."

* * *

The two rode up an elevator with an agent in tow. Cooke and Markus looked back and forth at each other, worried.

_The LyokOS flash drive!_

If the FBI got their hands on that flash drive, it'd be over for them _and _the Lyoko Warriors!

Markus looked over at the agent, searching for clues about the agent. He was wearing a ring- aha! A college ring! Red, gold, with a football on the side.

"Hey, Cooke." Markus hinted, "You missed an amazing game last night."

"I missed a lot of things last night." Cooke raised an eyebrow.

"No! The Packers versus Patriots!"

Cooke knew absolutely jack-all about football, or any other sport. He just shrugged.

"Tom Brady caught an impressive pass-"

The agent twitched, "Probably because that ball was deflated _too_! I can't _believe _he was allowed to continue playing this season!"

Cooke looked forward and smiled, now seeing the plan, "Do you think that, uh, thing was called right, though?"

"Did- no! Absolutely not!" The agent continued, "Anyone with two brain cells could see Cobb was shoved into the sidelines before he even caught the ball!"

"I think it was called right." Markus opposed.

"Are... You kidding?!" The agent fumed, "In what world can Almendola shove someone out without being penalized?!"

"I'm with him." Cooke played, "Maybe the Patriots have the refs on payroll."

"I keep saying that but no one agrees!" The agent ranted, "It's the most obvious answer! But no! We have to launch season-long investigations in order to figure out what is plain and obvious!"

The elevator dinged, and the door opened. Markus went ahead, and Cooke walked with the agent.

"What do you think should be done about Brady?"

"Honestly? Fire him, let him slip back into obscurity, and let the team return to it's former glory."

"Good answer. But, how would that stop other teams without such noted players?"

"Suspend the team while the investigation goes on."

"Yes, but let's say they find the team innocent, and they've been out a season. Now they've lost revenue and sponsorships!"

"-Which the NFL should refund, because like a court, if the defense is found innocent, the plaintiff has to pay for the legal fees and lost wages for them."

Cooke's knowledge of football ended there, only tabloid information. But luckily, they came upon their dorm with the door wide open, and Markus collecting disks and drives.

"Do you want our phones, too?"

"No. We do not have a warrant for them."

"Really? They aren't lumped into this agreement?"

"Given that it is a locked device and we don't have probable cause, no."

"Well! Good to know!" Markus breathed, "I have some pictures I wanted to keep... For... Reasons..."

"Just get me your disks, and I'll be on my way."

* * *

Cooke and Markus scraped together all their storage devices and handed them over in a brown paper bag.

"...Good." The agent looked around, then at Markus, "I'll also be needing the one sticking out of your pocket."

Cooke's heart sank, "Yeah, man... Hand it over."

Markus checked his empty pocket, "Uhh, sorry man. No drive."

"Don't play dumb with me." The agent snapped his fingers and pointed at the other pocket, "THAT one."

"Ohh..." Markus pulled out the flash drive, "THIS one... Are you sure?"

"I'll be checking that one first myself."

"No reason to man... It's completely empty. Well, MOSTLY empty. Probably a few files in there."

"Then you won't mind them being searched if it's mostly empty."

"Well... You see, it's just that it's a 256 gigabyte flash drive. Fairly pricey, and kinda hard to come by."

"Markus likes his stuff." Cooke laughed, "One time, he wouldn't let me bring his calipers to a robotics event because "it was his only good pair." By which, he meant they were the only pair with batteries!"

"Hey- I knew someone would steal them! They're a really good pair of digital calipers!"

"See, agent?"

The agent looked sternly down at them, "Your items will be returned if they are found innocent."

"There, ya see?" Cooke scoffed, "All we have to do is prove our stuff is innocent and they'll return it!"

"You're right, this is unfair."

The agent took the drive, turned around and walked out, "Thank you for your cooperation."

* * *

"Unbelievable." Cooke fumed, "This contest was nothing more than a way to find students who build useful things for the government to steal!"

"Calm down, you don't know that."

"Do you _know _what civil forfeiture _is_? It's legalized robbery! We'll _never _win the case to get our stuff back!"

"Then we'll start over." Markus shrugged.

"How are you so calm right now- THEY HAVE THE LYOKOS FLASH DRIVE- we are SCREWED!"

"Nope!" Markus pulled out his phone, "It's all right here!"

"...How did you...?"

"When you were distracting the agent with sports talk, fantastic job, by the way."

"Thanks."

"I came in here, plugged the drive into my phone, and ported everything over and wiped the drive. Gotta love Microsoft for putting full Windows on their phones!"

"...Niiiiice."

Suddenly, his phone started beeping.

"Uh oh, activated tower." Markus finessed with the screen, "...Uhhh, uh oh."

"XANA's in our sector?"

"XANA's in our sec- yeah, you called it."

"Kicking us while we're down, of course." Cooke stretched, "Alright, let's go beat up some Kankrelats! Just what I need right now! XANA won't know what hit him!"

A projectile crashed through the window, and landed on Cooke's bed. It was a canister with roughly legible printing:

7290

BANG

cond Delay

"What just-"

"FLASHBANG!" Cooke bodyslammed the door and burst through it, right as a loud bang and bright light flooded the room.

"Oww..." Markus murmured within the room, "I can't see..."

Cooke boldly ran back in-

_CRUNCH!_

-and stepped on Markus' glasses.

"Oh, great!" Cooke found Markus, "Buddy, how are you?"

"All I hear is ringing and I see white..."

Cooke picked up Markus and threw his arm over his shoulder, "Let's get you out of here!"

"What happened?!"

"I don't know!"

Markus pulled himself up and put a hand on Cooke, "XANA!"

Cooke held onto Markus' arm and dragged him down the hallway.

_ZZZZZZAP!_

A purple lightning bolt flew right past their heads. Cooke looked over his shoulder, and saw the sport savvy agent raising an open hand at them.

"XANA WANTS US DEAD!"

"COOKE! GET US TO THE RECORDING STUDIO!"

Cooke pressed the button for the elevator, which was a floor below them, "Why?!"

"The room has three inch thick walls and a two inch thick metal door!"

"Where is it?!"

"Building thirty!"

_ZZZAP BANG!_

The elevator doors opened, Cooke rushed inside with Markus and shut the doors. The elevator descended to the ground floor.

"Building thirty is the next building over, we just have to clear the courtyard." Markus focused.

"I don't know how bad it is out there, we might not make it!"

"We'll make it! Provided I don't trip on anything!"

"I'll do my best to guide you!"

The elevator doors opened. Cooke popped his head out, and checked the hall.

All clear.

Cooke pulled Markus along to the door to the courtyard, and immediately saw several XANAfied agents waiting outside with twitchy fingers.

"Man, XANA _really _wants us dead!"

"What's happening?! I can't see!"

"We have several agents with some anger problems."

"Let's call Jeremie, he'll know what to do." Markus patted his pockets, "Uhh... Phone... Crap."

"Don't tell me you lost your phone! Our _only _connection to the super computer!"

"It was knocked out of my hand in the explosion!" Markus shook his head, "Call Jeremie!"

Cooke pulled out his phone, and dialed Jeremie.

* * *

Jeremie picked up his phone, "About time! There's an activated tower!"

"WE NOTICED!"

Jeremie paused, "...What's going on over there?"

"Let's see, Markus is blind and mostly deaf, we have XANAfied agents shooting lightning from their _freaking hands_ at us, and we're in the complete open!"

"Jeremie," Markus continued calmly, "We have to get through our courtyard to a building with a secure room."

"What do you need?"

"A window of opportunity to get through without exploding like hotdogs."

Cooke winced, "...What now?"

"Aaaanyways, we need all the XANAfied agents to... Not zap us for that time."

Jeremie started pounding away at his keyboard, "Does your school have a PA system?"

"Yeah."

"Perfect! If I overload the electromagnetic drivers, it'll cause a brief disruption to any electronic devices. And of course, XANA."

"Turning the PAs into mini EMPs." Markus raised an eyebrow, "Done this before, I take it?"

"...Sort of."

"Gotta watch those diaries, man."

"I would if I could SEE!"

"Guys, calm down!" Jeremie interrupted, "I've already beaten your school's firewall, just tell me when."

"How much time will we have?"

"I... Just, run as fast as you guys can."

"Not much, gotcha." Cooke readied behind the door, "I'm ready."

Markus grabbed onto Cooke, "I'm ready."

"Alright, it might be kind of loud, but three, two, one...!"

A sharp, ear-splitting screech filled the hallways, and agents everywhere began to flicker, causing them to freeze in place.

Cooke busted through the door and ran across the courtyard, right as he heard the screech start to die down.

"We're almost there!"

Cooke opened the door to building thirty and ran inside with Markus right as the screech stopped, the agents unfroze and began charging them.

"Where is the room?!"

"Second floor!"

"Oh, you have GOT to be-"

_ZAP!_

_ZAP! ZAP!_

Cooke ran for the elevator, but shook his head. He had no time to waste waiting.

"Can you climb stairs?"

"Not reall- Woah!"

Cooke slung Markus over his shoulder and ran up two flights of stairs with two agents in tow.

_ZZZZAP! ZAP!_

"WHERE NEXT?!" Cooke set Markus down.

"Hallway! Fourth door on the right!"

Cooke grabbed Markus again and dragged him down to the room.

Which was locked.

"Just... Great. It's locked."

"Jeremie, please hack the electronic door locks for room 30-475A."

"On it!" Jeremie happily assisted.

"Oh, well, that works too."

Right as the agents turned the corner, the door unlocked. Cooke wasted no time, pressed his whole body against the door to open it and shoved Markus inside the studio.

ZZZZZAP!

Cooke slammed the door shut, and jammed a chair under the handle.

"We're safe!" Cooke announced.

"I'll fry those locks so XANA can't get through your only line of defense." Jeremie assured.

* * *

Cooke lied down on the padded floor, "...So, how are we going to deactivate the tower?"

"We'll simply send Aelita over to-"

"No, we can't. We've already learned that Matriks towers can only be deactivated by Matriks Warriors. Or, warrior, in our case."

Markus felt his way over to a chair and sat down, "Well, how do we get out of here then?"

"With the number of agents out there and the fact Jeremie sealed us in here, the only way out is with a return to the past." Cooke lifted his head up, "I can't really think of any plan that's feasible except to defeat XANA."

"We can't launch such a complex attack in such a short amount of time!" Jeremie echoed from Cooke's phone.

"We know, we know..." Cooke trailed, "...I think XANA has us beat."

Markus stroked his chin, and then snapped his fingers, "There is ONE thing we can do!"

"I'm open to any ideas!"

"Good, because it's one you'll hate." Markus took a deep breath, "We need a new warrior."

"Oh _come on_! Now is _not _the time for this argument!"

"Which is why I'm not arguing! It's _fact _we need another person!"

"Alright, who should we bring aboard our adventure then, hm?" Cooke scoffed, "Who knows our lab like we do? Who has the technical prowess like we do? Who has the _experience _like we do? And most importantly, who can we trust?"

Markus reached into his pocket, and pulled out a business card, "Agent Juliet with the FBI does."

"Oh, absolutely _not_!" Cooke argued, "We've been doing this thing as a duo to keep it _away_ from the Feds! And you want to bring one in?!"

"She knows our lab, she has some sort of combat experience, and I'd trust her. As for her technical prowess... I wouldn't know."

"That flashbang really _banged _you up."

"If you can guide her to the scanner, I can virtualize her remotely." Jeremie suggested, "And I'll send Aelita and the gang to back her up."

"There, ya see? If we can get her downstairs, Jeremie can assume my role. No real technical prowess required."

"I still disagree with this decision."

"If I can't make you agree with it, fine. I'll just go over your head and call her myself."

"Good luck with no vision and no phone!"

"Let's see, I have a file pulled up... Is it Agent Juliet Michaelson, FBI, Washington DC division?" Jeremie asked.

"Sounds right." Markus smiled.

"Don't... Don't do it, Jeremie!"

"Dialing!"


	15. Fine Print (Part 2)

Code Matriks

Episode 15: Fine Print (Part 2)

By B1ockh3d

* * *

Juliet sat back in her chair, watching the television on the wall. The news was on reporting a siege on the WSU campus with reports of sparks and lightning.

An official burst out of an office behind her, "WHY CAN'T ANYONE CONTACT THE AGENTS INSIDE?!"

"There's some sort of interference, sir!"

"Clear it up! This is becoming a PR _disaster_!"

"What on earth is going on?" She pondered.

The desk phone began ringing, and she immediately picked it up.

"Hello? Is this Juliet?" a voice asked.

"Yes, this is _Agent _Juliet. Who is calling?"

"Markus Edwards from WSU-"

"Wait, you're on the campus right now?! Are you and... Cooke?"

"Yes, that's me..."

"Are you both safe?!"

"Yes- Listen." Markus breathed, "Is this line secure?"

"All government lines are."

"Good. Listen, there is nothing you or anyone else can do about what's going on here."

"What _is _going on there?"

"Your agents became possessed by a super computer virus and gained the ability to shoot lightning from their hands." Markus bluntly laid it, "Here's the thing, they're coming for us."

Juliet froze, "...I'm sorry, could you repeat that first part?"

Markus cleared his throat, "The federal agents you guys probably can't contact are... Brainwashed. They don't know what they're doing."

"How do you know this?"

"All will be explained and more, later. But you need to listen to us, because our lives depend on you right now."

"Who's brainwashing our agents?"

"Ugh- Juliet! Listen! They're possessed by a virus! You need to manually deactivate the virus that's controlling them!"

"...Like a... Disease?"

"JULIET! Do you want to save them or not?!" Cooke barked.

"Ahp- yes. How much man-power do we need?"

"You, and ONLY you!"

"Hold on, how do I know you two aren't causing this?"

"Oh, come _on_! We've been _fighting _the virus that's taken control of your coworkers! And that's why _we're _the targets!"

"Tell ya what," Markus negotiated, "You can sit on your rear and do nothing, question later why only Cooke and I were killed, and your agents have no memory of today; or do exactly what we say, and prevent this from happening in the first place."

Juliet raised her eyebrow, "Now, how would you- er, _I_, prevent this from happening? It's already happened."

Markus sighed, "All will be explained and more, but you need to get out of your headquarters or whatever and get to our lab. Bring a strong magnet and your little RFID cracking thing."

"...And that's all I need to save the world?"

"GO! Call us back when you get there!"

Markus hung up the phone. Juliet stared blankly at the television, still not understanding anything Markus and Cooke just explained.

An overbearing agent tapped her desk twice and shook her from her trance, "Juliet?!"

"Ah- Yes sir?"

"You're still at your desk...?"

She looked around, and saw that the room was cleared out.

"I'm about to head out," she began, "I just got off the phone with our two lab contest winners. They're on the campus."

"...And?"

She stood up and grabbed a backpack, "They did say they had a lead on the situation-"

"Any lead is a good lead right now! Get down there and save them! We're having enough problems as it is with the news saying that it's _our _people causing the attack! If those two are killed, it'll look like a hit!"

"I'm on it, sir!"

Juliet ran out and got into black SUV, where she sat and recalled the conversation with Cooke and Markus.

"...Magnet, and RFID cracker..."

She opened up her backpack, and saw a laptop and an RFID sensor.

"Magnet... Hm. I'll have to figure something out..."

Juliet started the car, and drove to the duo's lab.

* * *

"Ugh... I hope she does something." lazed Cooke, "I don't think she'll have the guts to go in the scanner."

"I bet she'll be so entranced by the quantum computer, she'd do it to learn more." Markus countered.

"Uh, guys," Jeremie echoed, "I think XANA has control over the media now!"

"What?"

"Go look at the news right now! The story's changed!"

Cooke took his phone, and opened up a live news broadcast.

"-a lab raid. It is now reported that the two WSU students are responsible for this attack: A black male, and white male, ages eighteen to twenty, between heights five foot nine to six feet. Their names have yet to be released."

"Diabolical bastard... Making us look like we're some kind of evil villains! This is awful!" Cooke cringed.

"Dude, don't worry. A return to the past will fix this." Markus reminded.

"Only if we get the chance!"

* * *

Juliet parked her car outside their lab, right next to several other government vans. She stepped out, and approached the door. When she looked in, she saw the place was entirely empty.

"What on earth...?"

She went back to the vans, peered into the windows, and saw all of their equipment. She opened one up, and found a large microwave magnet sitting in the box. She grabbed it, walked inside, and hit redial on her cell phone.

"Hello?" Markus answered.

"Alright, it seems you two have a grasp of the situation, and I have no leads to go on. I'm at your lab, what do you want me to do?"

Cooke cleared his throat, "Y'know how whenever you crack the safe, there's nothing in it?"

"Yes."

"That's not entirely true... It's a false wall."

"Oh? You've been lying, have you? Fan_tastic_."

"But! You'll understand why when we explain it to you!"

"You bet. You also better hope I don't tell my superiors about it."

"You won't. Listen, put the magnet on the door of the safe, crack it, then, uh... Enter it."

"..._Enter _it?"

"Stop asking questions! Our lives are at stake here! We'll answer _all _questions later!"

"Okay, _enter _your safe. Then?"

"Our buddy Jeremie will assist you from there. You can trust him. Just listen to _every instruction he gives you_."

"How will-"

"GO!" Cooke hung up.

Juliet tucked her phone away and grabbed her backpack, "Well then..."

She went into the closet — now with its locks drilled out — and moved the mop bucket aside, revealing the RFID pad. She plopped the magnet on the door, pulled out her laptop and cracked the safe open.

The door popped up, she pulled it open the rest of the way, and saw a spiral staircase leading down to a faint light.

"Oh. _Enter _it."

She descended into the room, and headed down a short hall to a brighter light source. She came upon a massive computer interface, and a huge holographic display.

"...I..."

Juliet was speechless.

"Hello?" A French voice called out.

"He... Hello?"

"Oh! You must be Agent Juliet!"

"And... You must be... Jeremie?"

"Yes!"

"What does your name stand for?"

"Uh... My name?"

"Yeah. Jeremie. J-E-R-E-"

"Oh! I'm not the _computer_! That's my actual name! I'm a _real person_!" Jeremie popped a window open on the computer so Juliet could see him.

"...Where are you?"

"France."

"What _is _this place?"

"Where you are is in the remnants of an abandoned government project called Matriks. And you have been selected by Cooke and Markus to fight XANA alongside us!"

"...Huh?!"

"We don't have a huge amount of time to waste, Aelita and I will explain what you need to do to save Cooke and Markus." Jeremie affirmed, "Then, when this is all over and this day begins again, we'll delve a little deeper into the full picture."

"...D'okay then. What do you need from me?"

"You're going to be sent into a virtual world where monsters want to kill you and you need to deactivate a tower."

"Comparable to... Sword Art Online!" A voice in the background added.

"Odd, _not _a good example!" A female voice retorted.

"Aaaaand in addition to Aelita, you'll be joined by Odd and Yumi." Jeremie updated.

"...I'm going to be... Sent to a _virtual _world?"

"Yes! Virtualization!" A pointy-haired blond boy peeked into the frame, "Ooo! Who are you?!"

"Odd, this is Juliet, she's going to deactivate the tower because Cooke and Markus are trapped on their campus."

"Cool! Un de nous! Un de nous! Un de nous!" Odd chanted.

Juliet scratched her head, "I don't understand. Such a thing is impossible!"

"Not unless you have a quantum computer!" Jeremie cracked his knuckles, "Which, you do."

Juliet stepped back and looked at the computer over again, "This... You mean to tell me... _This _is a _quantum computer_?!"

"Yes, and we have one just like it."

She ran her fingers through her hair, "This... Is so far beyond me!"

"That's why I'm here!"

She looked back at Jeremie, "...You're a teenager! I'm probably _twice _your age!"

Yumi pulled the screen towards herself, "Listen, there's a lot of things you don't know. But right now, deactivating the tower is top priority."

"I'm here to help my fellow agents, not... Get... _Virtualized_?!"

Jeremie pulled the screen back, "How tech-savvy are you?"

"I can code in Python and HTML, but not... _This_!"

"Yeah, that's not gonna help you..." He stroked his chin, and snapped his fingers, "...Alright. There is another way. Rebooting the computer."

"See?! _Far _more sensible!" Juliet agreed, "How do I do that?"

"You have to do it manually." Jeremie advised, "There should be a small elevator to your left. Step inside, it'll take you down to the actual computer."

Juliet non-chalontly walked into the scanner, "Alright... Hey, where's the buttons?"

The scanner doors closed.

"What.. Huh?!"

"Transfer, Juliet!"

She rose up into the air, and the scanner flooded with light.

"HELP!"

"Scanner, Juliet!

Wind blew past her face.

"AHHHH-"

"Virtualization!"

* * *

Juliet fell onto the icy surface. Her brunette hair was now pulled into a ponytail, and her attire was some sort of black padded body armor and a metal gauntlet on her right hand with a closed eye crying engraved on it.

She dusted herself herself off, "What... Just... Happened?"

"Hi there." A soothing female voice greeted.

Juliet turned around, and saw a pink-haired pixie girl floating above her with pink wings.

"I'm Aelita, you must be Juliet."

"That was _not _an elevator." She shook her head, "I'm seeing things, this can't be real..."

"It is, and we need Cooke and Markus. You're our only hope for saving them."

"What... _Are _you?"

"...Could you be more specific?"

"Are you a program? Is this like Tron?"

"I'm a real person who was virtualized here to help you, and Tron is a fair example."

"Okay... So I'm on the grid, and we're both users." Juliet shook her arms out, "Then... I must have a weapon of some sort?"

Aelita shrugged, "The super computer decides your appearance based on your inner conscious desires. Weapons as well."

She patted around her body, and came to some sort of protruding stick in her back. She pulled it out, and drew a short knife.

"So... A short knife?"

Aelita peeked around her, "Uh, keep checking."

She reached back, and pulled out another knife. Then she ran her fingers across her back, and felt eight more.

"...Ten! I have ten knives!"

"You have ten _throwing _knives." Aelita deduced.

She put her two wielded knives away, "Okay, now what?"

Aelita rolled her eyes, "Follow me."

* * *

Yumi and Odd caught up to Aelita and Juliet.

"Wow! You're one awesome looking babe!" Odd flirted.

"I'm _twice _your age, kiddo!" Juliet reminded.

Odd froze, "O-oh."

"She also works for the US government." Jeremie chimed overhead.

"Then I guess we better not screw around, _Odd_." Yumi inferred.

"I think I'm starting to warm up to this..." Juliet commented, "I still have a hard time believing I'm _inside _a quantum computer."

"Once again, we'll give you the whole story as soon as the tower is deactivated and the day starts over." Jeremie promised.

"So if you screwed anything up between when you woke up and now, you can fix it!" Odd daftly teased.

"That's my number one question, the whole... Day restart... Thing." Juliet shook her head, "Let's just get this over with. Where's the tower thing?"

Aelita turned around, and pointed at a black monolith surrounded with red smoke a few hundred meters away.

"Oh. Okay. That's easy."

"There's monsters there, they just haven't shown themselves yet." Yumi cautioned.

"Yeah... Scratch that, my number one question is _monsters_?"

"You see, you're here on Matriks right now to save Cooke and Markus from being killed by a super virus we call XANA!" Odd summed, "And XANA has lots of monsters to fight us with!"

Juliet slumped back, "Pfft. A _super virus_?"

"We're being serious."

"I bet! I'm in a video game for crissakes, I'm not saying I'm doubting you!" Juliet breathed, "But _only _a super virus? I've faced worse in Afghanistan."

"Keep in mind, this is the same virus that currently has your coworkers under mind control, and is shooting _lightning _from their _hands_." Jeremie bluntly laid, "I don't know what you faced in Afghanistan but XANA _can _and nearly _has _taken over the world! And I'll elaborate _after _the mission!"

"Fine, fine. Let's fight this thing then!"

She ran headlong down the path with the others in tow, and two large metallic orbs rolled out side by side. They split open, revealing a fleshy inside with an eye.

"Megatanks!" Aelita warned.

"What-"

Two beams shot out from each Megatank down towards Juliet, who was saved last-moment by Aelita swooping in and picking her up.

"-WOAH!"

"You should know better than to run into unknown and dangerous situations!" Aelita scolded, and set her back down.

"What _are _those things?!"

"Megatanks." Odd answered non-chalontly, "They're large, orb-y things that shoot lasers. Now watch how professionals take them down!"

Odd, now mounted on his Overboard, boosted ahead followed by Yumi on the Overwing. Yumi threw her fans down, only to have them both deflected by the metal shells protecting the Megatanks. Odd laid down a barrage of laser arrows, successfully hitting and destroying one while it was distracted by Yumi's fans. The remaining Megatank opened back up, charged and took aim at Odd flying about, only to be obliterated by an energy field orb by Aelita.

"Oh... My... You guys really don't mess around." Juliet stared in awe.

"Jeremie, how's Cooke and Markus?"

"I'll check in with them."

* * *

Cooke and Markus backed away from the door, which was now brimming with electricity.

XANA found them!

Cooke's phone rang, and he picked it up, "Yeah?"

"How are you guys doing?"

"Not well. XANA found us but hasn't gotten through the door... Yet!"

"Hang in there! Brace the door! Juliet is on Matriks, and they're heading for the tower!"

"Oh, really? They're almost there?"

"Ye- Nope! Three Tarantulas moving in!"

"Wonderful... Keep us posted." Cooke hung up.

"What's going on?" Markus asked.

"Juliet's on Matriks, and they're about to take on three Tarantulas. Then hopefully this will be over!"

"So, what should we do?"

Cooke looked around the room, "...We need to get that cabinet in front of the door."

"Uhh... I can't see without my glasses."

Cooke grabbed Markus' hands, brought him over to the cabinet, and pointed his body towards the door, "Push THAT way!"

Markus nodded. Cooke ran around to the other side and the two pushed the cabinet in front of the door.

"...I hope Juliet can pull through."

* * *

"AHHHHH!" Juliet screamed as she fled from the flurry of laser blasts breezing past her ears.

Odd jumped in behind her, and held up his shield, "C'mon! They're only Tarantulas!"

"Can't someone ELSE deactivate that _thing_?!"

"Do you think you'd be here if _we _could?" Aelita quipped.

"I don't know how this crazy world works!"

Yumi landed a kill on one of the Tarantulas, right as Odd's shield broke and blasted him back, devirtualizing him.

"Oh my god! Is he _dead_?!"

"Devirtualized." Jeremie assured, "He's back here on earth with me."

With the other Tarantulas targeting Yumi, Aelita took this time to land next to Juliet and grabbed her arm, "Juliet! Calm down!"

"I don't want to die!"

"You won't! You'll devirtualize- did you _not _just hear Jeremie?!"

"Then can I get out of here?!"

"You need to DEACTIVATE THE TOWER!"

Unfortunately, their time ran out. A Tarantula nailed a shot on the Overwing, causing Yumi to jump off and land next to the two.

"Yumi, one shot and you're done!" Jeremie warned.

"Good to know." Yumi acknowledged, dusting herself off.

Aelita turned Juliet towards her, "Look, it's about to be you and me versus them. You need to fight. There's a reason the super computer gave you a metal gauntlet and throwing knives."

"I... Have hand-to-hand combat training from my time in the military?"

"Ah!-" Yumi was hit, and devirtualized.

Aelita formed an energy field, "Throw those knives then!"

Juliet drew a knife, and threw it right at the giant XANA symbol.

It was blasted right out of the air by a shot from a Tarantula.

"Dangit! They can see it coming!"

"They aren't _that _smart! Throw _two _knives!" an irritated Aelita instructed, and flew up into the air.

Juliet drew a knife in each hand, threw one, then the other.

The Tarantula dodged the first one, but the second hit right above the XANA symbol.

"I did it!"

"Now do it again, but hit the _center _of the target!" Aelita shot off two energy fields, and destroyed the Tarantula, "Or... On the last one!"

Juliet confidently drew two more knives, but it wasn't quick enough. The Tarantula started firing a barrage of lasers, aimed straight at her head. She threw up her hands and jumped sideways, closed her eyes and braced.

To her surprise, the Tarantula stopped firing and looked side to side instead. Aelita flew out from under the path where she hid during the rapid fire, "...Juliet? Are you still there?!"

Juliet opened her eyes and waved, "I'm right her- WHAT THE?!"

Her hands were _translucent_. As were her arms, legs, and the rest of her body. She could roughly see an outline of herself, but she was more distracted by the fact she could see Aelita _through her own hand_.

"Ah! There you are!" Aelita sighed in relief, "Hey... You have _cloaking_!"

"How do I turn it off?!"

"How did you turn it on?"

Juliet stroked her chin, "Well... The thing was firing at me, I threw up my hands-"

As she motioned with her hands, she looked at the gauntlet. The engraved closed crying eye was now open, and glowing blue.

"-and I think I just figured it out." She touched the eye, and she returned to being visible, and the eye returned to being closed.

The Tarantula caught sight of Juliet, and began firing again.

"QUICK! Do it again! It'll never see it coming!" Aelita advised.

Juliet touched the engraved eye on her gauntlet, and returned to being invisible. She drew a single knife, and threw it right at the center of the XANA symbol.

_...Bullseye_.

The Tarantula exploded, and she deactivated cloaking, "...Well... Now what?"

Aelita pointed to the tower, "The path is all clear! Also, to enter the tower, you have to _will _yourself in there!"

"...I think I understand." Juliet nodded, and headed towards the tower.

* * *

Sparks were flying from the cabinet blocking the door, it was only a minute away from bursting open.

Cooke tried the door leading from the recording room they were in to the control center, but the door was locked by key.

"Oh _great_!" Cooke slammed his fists against the door, "We are so dead!"

"Don't freak out, man! Have a little faith!" Markus soothed.

"In _what_, exactly?! Juliet?! Our Lyoko pals?!"

"I currently can't see and you don't see me panicking, do you?"

"Maybe you should be! Fear is the instinct that keeps us human and _alive_!"

"People fear what they don't understand."

"Oh _come on_! Like that hasn't been said in literally _every _cartoon ever made!"

Right then, Cooke's phone buzzed, and displayed a message on the screen.

"Eh?"

"What is it, Cooke?"

Cooke picked up his phone, "It's a message... It says "RTTP"... What does that mean?"

Markus didn't say anything, he just chuckled as he was enveloped in a bright white light.

* * *

Cooke threw off his sheets, and looked around the room.

_Everything was intact!_

He checked the time, 7 AM? Right on cue for his alarm to go off!

"Told you to have a little faith!"

Cooke turned off his alarm, "Man... Juliet is going to have a _lot _of questions for us!"

Markus jumped down from his bed and put on his glasses, "Ah! I can _see_!"

"Y'know, return trips would be an excellent way to save on medical bills. If you break an arm, just jump back to before it happened!"

Markus wiped his glasses, "Hey, now we have time to prepare for the lab raid!"

"But we have to go to class!"

"We've already _taken _it!"

"...Fair point."

They both scrambled to get dressed and ran out the door.

* * *

They ran down to their lab, where there were no black SUVs!

Markus unlocked the door, to a smug agent Juliet.

"Oh, hi." Cooke shrugged.

"Alright, start talking." She demanded.

"...About?" Markus queried

"Don't play dumb. Talk about that virtual world thing you have lying under our feet."

"Huh?" Cooke tapped the ground with his foot, "The floor isn't virtual, it's concrete."

"Oh, really? I suppose you don't remember being saved by me, either?"

Markus shot a bewildered look at Cooke, "Saved? When?"

"You guys are really bad liars. It's not even remotely funny." Juliet scoffed, "Going back in time to the morning? Before my agents were brainwashed and both of you were in trouble."

Cooke laughed, "Juliet, we make robots. Not virtual time machine things, or whatever."

Juliet shrugged, and got up, "Alright, if you're gonna play it like this, I'm going to head to work and give special instructions to the raid that apparently happened without my approval."

"Alright, you don't want to do that." Markus cracked.

"Ohhhh _now _you remember!"

"Yeah... Oh, right! Matriks! I forgot about that thing. The thing that literally could be the end of mankind." Cooke jestly laughed, "How could I forget?"

"Top," Juliet raised her hand, and dropped it, "To bottom. Start talking. Or I'll ensure that _thing _gets shut down."

"I agree, Cooke!" Markus patted Cooke on the back, and grabbed a bin full of hard drives, "Tell the whole- ENTIRE story!"

Cooke smirked, "Well... I guess I'm playing storyteller."

Juliet folded her arms, "Yes."

"Alright... Remember that scholarship contest we won?"

"Absolutely."

"Yeah... That's where our lives turned upside down. Lemme tell ya what happened after we got the keys..."

* * *

Juliet nodded, impressed. "Remind me, if XANA is so dangerous, why can't you shut your computer down?"

"Because, like I said, the cooling for the nuclear batteries are directly linked to the power state of the computer. It'll go into meltdown mode, and become an A bomb." Cooke sighed, "And the threat doesn't stop if we shut down our computer-"

"Shut down that other computer then? The crazy warriors or whatever?"

"...No. If both we and the Lyoko warriors shut down our computers, XANA is still well and alive on the _other _super computer. The one we have no control over."

"Have you told that person about XANA?"

"Oh my god... Did you _not _hear the part where I was _kidnapped _by that guy?!"

"Right, right. He doesn't care..." Juliet stroked her chin, "...I think the best option for you guys is to turn over the computer to the FBI and we'll find a solution."

Cooke raised an eyebrow, "Define "solution," why don't you?"

"Shutting down this comp-"

"When will you start listening to me? You _can't _shut it down!"

"We'll find a way, for the sake of national security."

Cooke laid his hand on his face, "You see? This is why we never went to you in the first place..."

"It's better for our country and-"

Cooke got up, grabbed Juliet by the shoulders and shook her.

"STOP THINKING LIKE A FEDERAL AGENT!" He took a breath, "This is real apocalyptic stuff! Handing it over would be like handing over a land mine with a boot still on it!"

She stepped back, "Alright then, what do you propose?"

"Obviously we keep _fighting _the very thing that wants to kill us!"

_Knock knock!_

"FBI, is there anyone in here?" An agent imposed.

"Agent Juliet Michaelson, FBI. Come inside."

Several agents flowed in with large bins, and began placing Cooke and Markus' equipment inside of them.

"Hey! What _are _you doing?!"

In through the doors came a familiar agent holding a packet of papers, "Your lab has been-"

"Civil Forfeiture, and you're Agent Cassinov!" Markus finished, "What great timing, I just organized, packed, and labeled all of our stuff in bins!"

Cassinov eyed Markus, "...Excellent timing. And correct you are, how did you know who I am and what we're doing?"

"I've heard quite a bit about you, we'll leave it at that." Markus motioned Cooke towards a box, "C'mon, let's not waste his time."

"Uhh... So, this is happening. Okay." Cooke shrugged, and went to work.

Juliet looked at Cassinov, then back at the boys. Then at at the closet.

"...Sir."

"Yes, Agent Juliet?"

"I have a formal protest to make against this particular warrant."

"Denied."

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

The agent rolled his eyes, "First amendment rules."

"These kids aren't doing anything interesting or dangerous. We'd save ourselves a whole lot of time by just not doing menial raids such as this."

He winked, "You'll understand the purpose of this raid when you get promoted."

Markus came up to Cassinov with the box full of hard drives, "Sir, if it's not too hard, can we make a request?"

"You can make one, doesn't mean we'll accept it."

Markus shrugged, "Good enough answer. We'll give you this box full of all our information, research, blueprints, prototype designs and tests as well as our physical prototypes; as long we keep all of our tools and bins of scrap materials?"

The agent pondered, "...No."

"Well, okay, what if Agent Juliet here became our daily inspector? We'll also hand over any future devices we build."

"What?! We _will_?!"

"Shush!"

The agent contemplated the deal, and stroked his chin, "...Alright. And your patents will be ceased as well."

"We understand."

"We _do_?!"

"Shush up, Cooke!"

Another agent took the box from Markus, and a few more took out the rest of the prototypes.

"Keep it safe, kids." Cassinov coyly waved.

* * *

Markus watched as the vans left, and turned to a very frazzled Cooke.

"What the _frill_, man?!"

"I don't recall that we did Civil Forfeiture calls." Juliet puzzled.

"You don't. It's pretty clear this contest was an effort to find the best unknown tech developers and steal their ideas for government use. It's a cheap tactic, in more ways than one." Markus elaborated, "And all the stuff I just willingly handed over doesn't work."

"...Oh."

"That's an arrestable offense to knowingly produce and distribute faulty devices." Juliet warned.

"Alright, arrest me. But keep in mind, you guys should only be _ceasing _our technology, not illegally _utilizing _it!"

"And we avoid the courtroom if we have that card in our hand, well played!" Cooke laughed.

Juliet nodded, impressed, "I don't think it would quite work that way, but I'll let you believe that. What's next?"

Cooke looked at a clock on the wall, "Breakfast. That's next!"

* * *

Author's Note: Hey! Probably weird I put this at the end of the chapter, I know. But I wanted people to enjoy the non-stop transition between the last chapter and this one. Anyways! I've started school back up, and I should mention I'm a college student taking college level classes, it's kind of hard for me to balance this and my classes, especially this semester. This semester, I'm taking an English course and it's a bit mentally demanding, and kind of drains any motivation I have for writing to begin with. I'm not stopping these chapters by any means, I'm putting myself through it because I want- no, _need _to finish this story. I don't want this to be another story I just kinda leave floating in the wind, especially since I put over 60k words into it(!) But, this does mean I have to abandon my biweekly schedule, not that I followed it much to begin with. I am going to make an effort to put one chapter out a month. So, assume each chapter will be out at the end of the month if you want to know my new schedule. I have to give myself some sort of deadline or I'll never get a chapter done.

Buuuuut! Reviews do give me drive and motivation hinthintwinkwink! The more in-depth and somewhat ego-stroking, the better! How are you guys doing, by the way? I hope you're all doing well!


	16. Hi-Jinx

Code Matriks

Episode 16: Hi-Jinx

By B1ockh3d

Author's Note: Hey! So, obviously the "end of each month" idea hasn't been going accordingly. In my defense, I didn't see two English papers coming at me. And I only see more coming. :/

Rest assured, I'm still working on this project, and I've even got the next few big events in the story planned. I haven't decided if I want to make one of those big events happened in the next chapter or the one after, but I still have quite a bit more story to write. I believe we are either crossing or past the midpoint of Code Matriks, which I really want to finish by the end of the year. Note: _Want._

Regardless, it's nice to hear everyone's doing well! And I've garnered a few new readers! Thanks for joining this adventure, and please let me know how you're enjoying it! Read on!

* * *

"Knock knock?" An agent queried behind Juliet at he cubicle.

She swiveled around in her chair, facing Agent Cassinov, "Sir?"

"Have you been keeping up with those two down at that lab?"

"The two WSU students? Yessir. Everyday."

Cassinov flipped through a folder, and pulled out a piece of paper, "Tell me, what were you doing at their lab right before the raid?"

"Inspection."

"Interesting... They weren't scheduled for an inspection for another two weeks."

"Su...prise inspection. They weren't expecting one so early."

"Uh-huh..." Cassinov handed her the paper, "Because right before the raid, those two students sold their patents to a business that we have no information on."

"...Strange."

"And it happened to be right before a raid."

"That seems coincidental."

"A raid you were at before we got there." He raised an eyebrow.

Juliet shot him a disgusted look, "Sir! I would never blow an operation! Especially since I never knew about the raid to begin with! I wasn't even _clocked in_ at the time!"

"So, why were you doing an inspection if you weren't on the clock?"

Juliet froze. He was right.

"Also, all of their prototypes don't work. Every single one. They clearly did work, but now they don't. And Markus seemed very eager to hand them over, along with hard drives that are under a unique encryption that our best coders can't crack."

Juliet smirked, "I thought that stuff was civilly forfeited?"

"It is."

"Then why are you trying to use their stuff? Break into their encrypted hard drives?"

"Because, according to the agreement they signed, anything done in that lab that may be involved in terroristic activity is government property."

"Then it's not civilly forfeited, is it? It's repossessed."

Cassinov froze. He was stuck.

"You realize since you got their equipment under civil forfeiture laws, it's still technically theirs until they lose the court case. But since that section of the agreement states that what you took was government property and you didn't go through repossession, when this goes to court, you'll lose."

Cassinov scowled, "Unless you want to continue staying at a desk your entire career, you'll get the decryption keys from them."

"Or what?"

"I'll write you up for interfering with an operation by warning those students beforehand. There's plenty of evidence."

"Oh-hoh! You're blackmailing me?"

"What we're doing in the field is beyond your pay grade, and your level of technical understanding. Get the key before you clock out for the day."

* * *

"So, yes. That's how I'm being blackmailed to get decryption keys from you guys."

"That's pretty scummy." Cooke nodded, "Wait- Markus, you _sold _both of our patents?!"

"Yep! To MCUT Corporations!" Markus proudly boasted.

"What on _earth _is MCUT Corporations?!"

"Oh, it stands for Markus-Cooke Universal Technologies."

"SON OF A- what?"

"We're an LLC now! It'll make things just _that_ much harder for our intellectual property to be wrongfully taken, because we don't technically own it!"

"How did you make _us _an LLC so quickly?"

"Hacking, of course! While you were talking with Juliet."

"Okay, this is great and all, but why didn't you tell me what you were doing?" Juliet interrupted.

"Sorry, you were still in a state that of disbelief. I couldn't really wait to do all of that, but it does make you look bad." Markus apologized, "I was afraid they were going to do that."

"No... It's weird to say, but, I think you did the right thing. This whole situation is bizarre." Juliet agreed.

"Yeah... Why are you telling us this, anyways?" Cooke queried.

"Because a few days ago, several of our agents were brainwashed and you guys nearly died, only to be saved by me going to a virtual world, and only the three of us remember it because we also went back in time." Juliet summed, "In the military, I was assigned a unit of all men and I learned to deal with it. I believe I can trust you guys."

Cooke nodded, "Pretty good reason."

"Here, I'll get you out of this mess. At least for a little while." Markus walked over to a drawer and pulled out a package of USB sticks, and set up his computer, "All you'll have to do is plug it into your work station and it'll take over from there."

"It'll unlock all of your drives?"

"No, it'll unlock three. But the way it's coded is to make your hacker believe _he _cracked them." Markus explained.

"False hope will buy us a lot of time." Cooke added.

"If all goes accordingly, Cassinov will be off your back. Ours, too." Markus opened a drive and shoved it into the port on his computer.

"So... What are on these drives?"

"Junk." Markus chuckled, "Failed drafts of our various projects. Some are even empty, aside from the encryption."

"Why did you encrypt them?"

"Because you can't really trust anyone. Plus, it proves what we were worried about."

"...Which is?"

Cooke sighed, "You guys, the FBI, are taking stuff we invented and are trying to implement them with the technology that already exists. For free."

"You guys found the best and brightest to make the next best thing, and then essentially took it away before you had to pay for it."

Juliet folded her arms, "That's a mighty big accusation."

"Well, the evidence doesn't lie. It all points towards that." Markus ejected the drive and handed it to her, "We better keep our distance, though."

"Why so?"

"Seriously? You've already been accused of foiling their operation. If you get too close, they're gonna tell you to stop treating us like kids and more like government assets."

Cooke laughed, "I don't know what's worse, that we inadvertently became superheroes, or that we inadvertently became assets. All from the same event!"

Juliet stuffed the drive into her pocket, "Okay, I should get back to my office."

"Did we pass our daily inspection?"

"With flying colors, of course."

* * *

Juliet swiftly plugged the flash drive into the back of her computer tower, right as Agent Cassinov strolled up to her desk.

"So, get those decryption keys?" He smoothly asked.

"Your willingness to defy federal laws while enforcing them _astounds _me." Juliet bluntly lectured.

"Okay, in all honesty, who talks like that? Seriously? You aren't a scholar writing a paper!"

"I am an agent of the FBI and unlike you, I take my job seriously."

"Hon, you're a pencil pusher. _Relax_."

"...Did you really just call me _hon_?!"

"Heh. Yeah, go ahead and take me to HR-" Cassinov's phone buzzed. He checked it quickly, and put it away, "Well, regardless if you got a decryption key, my guy just cracked open a disk! Keep up your "serious" job in inspecting some college screwballs' lab daily. _Fantastic _work."

"Ha. If only you knew..." Juliet muttered as he walked away.

* * *

Cooke flung himself backwards onto his bed, "Ahhh my goodness we aren't stressing out over anything for once!"

"Math homework is done, English was cancelled, finished the project in Engineering two weeks ago alongside with programming!" Markus sat back in his chair, "And no pesky towers to deactivate!"

"Don't jinx it, bro."

"Jinx isn't a real thing. Whatever was going to happen would've happened regardless if I said anything or not. It's like watching a pot of water boil, it's still gonna boil regardless if I'm watching it or not!"

"...Don't jinx it, bro."

"Whatever. I'm just glad we're finally at a resting point. Maybe I'll take a nap."

"Right there with ya."

Cooke and Markus both got comfortable, and shut their eyes.

_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

Cooke rolled over and looked at the computer that was beeping, "...Oh, fancy that. An activated tower. I wonder why that happened."

"Jinxing isn't real!" Markus sneered, as he pulled himself up to his computer, "...OH!"

"What?!"

"Way back when you found the first purple tower, I programmed the tower scan to detect those towers as well."

"...Sooo...?"

"It found a purple tower! It's another shot at the puzzle!" Markus clarified, "Let's bring in Juliet!"

"Woah, wait, she already used her "daily inspection" card once today, it'd be awfully suspicious if she left now."

"Dude... It's almost five. Do you really think she works around the clock?"

"Or, we could ask when she gets off. That works too."

"You wanna make the call?"

"Sure."

* * *

Juliet placed a folder in her outbox, finishing another file.

"Juliet, can you handle these for me?" An agent plopped down a thick stack of folders in her inbox.

She groaned, "Simmons, why do you have all these unfinished files?"

"Because I didn't finish them."

"Then why are you handing them to me?"

"I have new priority ones to get to, and you finished yours."

She ran her fingers through her hair, "Alright, as long as those don't end up on my desk too!"

The agent tapped her desk and left.

"Really miss being in dirt right now." She muttered, then her phone rang, "Special Agent Juliet."

"Oh, _special _agent?" A familiar voice quipped, "What's the difference between a special agent and a regular agent?"

"This must be Cooke." She sighed, "How can I help?"

"What time do you get off work?"

"In an hour, but I might have some overtime..." She eyed the tall stack of files, "What's going on?"

"Did we ever tell you about the purple tower?"

"No... Can't say I recognize that term."

"Do you have any plans tonight?"

"Feed my cat. That's about it."

"Swing on by after you get off." Cooke hung up.

She put her phone down, "Well... At least there's something interesting to look forward to."

* * *

Juliet pulled up to the lab, and the two were standing out front.

"So, what's going on?"

"Are you good at puzzles?" Cooke queried.

"Well, I didn't study code-breaking in the military, but I do love a good jigsaw puzzle." She shrugged.

"Good enough. Cooke, fill her in." Markus entered the lab, and everyone followed.

"Alright, so awhile back, I was running from a clone of William-"

"The William controlled by... XANA, right?"

"Yes! You're getting the hang of it! Anyways, I was running from the clone, and I looked for a tower to seek refuge in."

"And... How many towers are there?"

"I believe it's something like fifteen. But I can only enter them when they're activated, except the Way tower and Passa-"

"Purple tower!" Markus interrupted as he opened the hatch to the super computer.

"Er, I ran from the clone into a cave, where a tower glowing purple stood. It wasn't on Markus' screen, and it disappeared when I entered it."

"So... Why is a disappearing tower important?"

"When I entered it, a panel appeared with a short quiz. It asked for my name, my quest, and the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow."

"Hold on," Juliet stopped walking, "This _magical _tower asked you to recite Monty Python and the Holy Grail?"

"Yes! And we don't know why!"

"...Aren't you guys super geniuses?"

"Uhh," Cooke bit his lip, "Not really, no? I mean, we somehow failed that quiz."

"How could you possibly fail that?!"

"It also asked what that was from! We fed it the right answer, but it rejected it!"

"Did you read the question correctly?"

"IT ASKED WHAT THE QUOTE WAS FROM! Come ON! Were we supposed to put in the full cast and crew too?!"

"Alright guys, hate to interrupt, but, go in the scanner." Markus pointed.

Juliet raised an eyebrow, "So, uh, you or me first?"

"It doesn't matter! Cooke, in!"

Cooke hopped in, and the scanner doors closed.

"Transfer, Cooke... Scanner..." Markus pounded the enter key, "Virtualization!"

The scanner doors opened, and the inside was completely empty.

Juliet timidly stepped inside, "Does... Doesn't this... _Will _this cause health problems?"

Markus shook his head, "The scanner is based off the ones designed for Carthage, and according to our French friends, they don't."

"Uh, what's Carthage?"

"Oh, dangit Cooke! I thought he told you! We'll explain!"

"And-"

"Transfer, Juliet!" The scanner doors shut, "Scanner... Virtualization!"

* * *

Juliet landed on her back on an icy plain, with Cooke overlooking her in his glorious blue, black, and white leotard.

"Aww, why did _she _get a cool outfit?!"

"I don't even know what either of you guys look like, so I can't say." Markus neutrally answered.

"This... Place, _still _gives me the chills!"

"Well, yeah, it's the _ice _sector."

"You know what I mean!"

Cooke laughed, "You'll get used to it."

"The purple tower is south by southwest, half a kilometer from your position."

"Can we have a vehicle?"

"I knew you were gonna ask, Cooke. Sending the Overbike."

"Uh, vehicles?" Juliet queried.

"Well, yeah. Unless you feel like running half a kilo for no reason. I'm surprised you don't know about them?"

"Well, I guess those other guys were using vehicles too, huh..."

The Overbike materialized in front of them.

"Ever rode on the back of a motorcycle?"

"No, I've never been on one before, actually."

"Simple stuff. Just hold onto me!" Cooke hopped onto the Overbike, "C'mon!"

Juliet cautiously mounted the back of the vehicle, and Cooke then immediately opened the throttle to the maximum,"AH!"

"See? Easy peasy!"

"THIS ISN'T SAFE!"

"The worst that will happen is that you get devirtualized! Chill!"

"THIS WAS A HORRIBLE MISTAKE!"

"Man, for an uptight FBI agent, you sure get squeamish at the drop of a hat!"

"ARE WE THERE YET?!"

"What do you think? And stop shouting! I can hear you just fine!"

* * *

Cooke pried Juliet's frozen fingers off of his chest as they both dismounted the Overbike.

"Alright, where is it?" Cooke scanned his eyes around. There was a long plain where they just came from, mountains on both sides, and a cave.

"I'm guessing since we don't see it, it's in that cave?" Juliet deducted.

"Man, I wish I thought of that." Cooke sarcastically remarked.

"Uh, guys?" Markus warned, "There's a weird signal next to the tower."

"Just a weird, ominous, singular signal?"

"It has the same kind of symbol for a person or monster."

"Oh, lovely." Cooke drew his short sword, "Must be William."

Juliet drew two knives, "I hope it's not, because he sounds like a really tough guy to beat."

"Oh, he gets easier every time I fight him. XANA is just a program that simulates fighting, but he's still a computer with predictable movements. Also, _those _areyour weapons? Not bad! Anything else?"

"Yeah! I can also turn invisible for a few seconds!"

"Okay, you can stop rubbing it in. I don't care."

"But, you just ask-"

"Shut it!" Cooke winced, "Let's focus on the mission, yes?"

"A-alright. Lead the way."

* * *

Cooke ran inside the cave, followed by a timid Juliet.

"What's this "William" guy have?"

"A big honking impractical sword. But don't be fooled by it, it can pretty much one-hit you!"

They arrived at the purple tower, but to a much different enemy awaiting. It was the abducted archer from the Cortex!

"Uh, is _that_ William?"

"Nope! Much worse!" Cooke readied his sword, "If those arrows still do what they did to me, don't get hit by one!"

"What did they-"

"NOT NOW, JULIET!" Cooke swung his blade and engaged the whip function, slashing the archer from a sizeable distance away."

"Woah! Nice! Check out what I can do!" Juliet drew two knives and activated her cloaking ability.

"Huh? Where are you?!"

The archer fired a shot at the distracted Cooke, and nailed a hit square in the head.

"OW!" He stumbled, "...At least I wasn't abducted."

"Don't worry, I got you! Watch!" She threw her knives. One was deflected, another hit square in the chest.

The archer stumbled, but managed to gather his footing. He looked around, and sank into the ground. Juliet deactivated her cloaking, and smiled contentedly.

"Well, that was easy. We did it!" She proudly boasted, "Cooke? We did it!"

No response.

"Cooke? Cooooooke?"

* * *

The scanner doors opened for a very unhappy Cooke, rubbing his face.

"Uhh, welcome back to the earth!" Markus greeted.

Cooke stomped over to Markus, took off his headset, and put it on himself, "Hey, Juliet, next time keep track of _where _you throw those things!"

"Cooke? You devirtualized? How?"

"Yes! Because when you _stupidly_ threw knives at him, the one he deflected hit me square in the _face_!"

"Oh, sorry."

"This is why we make plans! Because I _literally_ couldn't see your knives coming! Now we won't know what will happen in the purple tower! We have to abort!"

"I can always do, er, try it."

"This puzzle is super complex! I need to study it and figure it out!"

"But we'll get another shot at it, right?"

"Maybe! Eventually!"

"Great! No harm in trying then!"

"Listen to me, you don't know what you're doing!"

No response.

"Oh, you did _not_ just go in there!"

Markus pulled up the security camera trained on the super computer, which blinked purple eight times, "She's in."

"God _freaking_... UGH! THIS IS WHY I DIDN'T WANT TO RECRUIT ANYBODY!"

* * *

Juliet looked around the bare tower, and found a floating panel near the center.

"Alright, let's do it."

She approached the panel, which read "Welcome to Matriks."

"So, how do I start this?"

_BEGIN!_

_"_Ah."

_What is your name?_

She typed in "Juliet."

_What is your quest?_

She typed in "I seek the Holy Grail."

_What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?_

She typed in "That depends. African or European?"

The panel lagged for a moment.

_...What is that scene?_

"Hm. And the answer isn't the actual scene..." Juliet smirked, "So... What _is_ this scene, if it's not Monty Python?"

Could it be Cooke put it in wrong? Or maybe the answer wasn't specific enough? Perhaps the question was put in wrong. There could be any number of reasons as to why this particular question was wrong, but she only had one shot.

"...What kind of questions are these?"

The name question felt fairly straightforward. Everyone has a name. Cooke worked, as well as Juliet. Who wouldn't have a name?

But... What is the quest question about? Is it looking for a specific quest? Everyone has a different quest in life, but maybe that question is being read farther into than it needs to be.

And finally, the unladen swallow question. While Juliet doesn't keep that information in her head like everyone else does in society, why would it matter? Much less, all of these questions were answered with their Monty Python continuation. Something every _person _on the planet knows!

Wait... That exactly who'd answer these questions. People. Software can't.

Computers, specifically artificial intelligence, have to answer questions exactly. Just like searching something on Google for something else and getting something oddly specific and makes sense with the search, but it's not what you were looking for. Such as searching for "arcade fire" and getting the band, but you were looking for arcades on fire. Point being, computers don't have names, quests, and would give a precise answer to the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.

"...It's a Turing test." Juliet deduced.

_What is this scene?_

A computer would give an exact answer, that it's Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But it would be wrong, because that's not what the question is asking. It's asking for a _personal opinion_ on the scene. Computers don't have emotions or opinions. What _is_ this scene _to you?_

"...Funny. It's a funny scene." Juliet shrugged, and typed in "Funny."

The panel disappeared, and the color inside the tower changed from purple to orange.

"Uhh, computer, what's going on?" she quietly panicked, "Can anyone hear me?"

The tower started dematerializing around her, revealing a non-ice sector.

"...Woah."

* * *

The computer screen cleared all windows, and displayed the message: "Welcome to Matriks."

"Oh, my god, she _did_ it?!" Cooke scratched his head, "How?!"

The holographic display zoomed out of the ice sector, and revealed a world map consisting of eight sectors total.

"Jeez! _Eight_?!" Markus attempted to comprehend, "What - why - _how_?!"

"Guys? Can you hear me?" Juliet called out.

"_There_ you are! We've been waiting two hours!"

"That was only a minute!"

"You were in suspended animation, big difference." Markus explained, "We've _literally_ been sitting here for two hours."

"Oh, it was well worth it!" Juliet assured, "This place is incredible! There's things everywhere!"

"What does it look like?!" Cooke demanded.

"There are lots of these tall black buildings, like the towers, but huge!"

The tower scan suddenly went off, showing that all of the towers in all the sectors were activated.

"Uhh, bad news, I think we just helped JAER escape the super computer!" Cooke panicked.

"WHAT?!"

"All the towers are activated! The super computer is gonna be compromised!" Markus quickly dove into the source files of the computer, and found various strains of code being wiped, "Crrrap! I'm bringing you in while I still can!"

Markus quickly launched a materialization program, and seconds later the scanner doors opened with a very dazed Juliet.

"What's going on-" she clutched her stomach, "Ohhhh...!"

Cooke handed her an open trash bin, "Forced suspended animation takes its toll!"

She grabbed the bucket, ran to the corner, and hurled several times.

"What on _earth_ just happened?!" Markus pulled at his hair, "That went from productive to _very bad_ in _seconds_!"

"Did JAER really do all that?!" Cooke paced.

"That's the only explanation that makes sense! Our mainframe was just _eaten_ for crying out loud! Do you really think a human would wait for us to unlock the computer and _then_ wipe it?!" Markus opened a terminal command window, typed in instructions, then slammed his fists on the desk, "THE SCANNER PROTOCOLS ARE _GONE_! We _can't _go back to Matriks!"

"No! NO! NO NO NO!" Cooke appropriately reacted.

Juliet took a deep breath, then exhaled, "What's left?"

Markus rubbed his face, then continued working, "...It looks like everything we put on it, some data packets, and... Huh. I don't recall leaving an audio file on here?"

"Huh?"

Markus highlighted a file named " 3"

"Alright, I'm getting a little weirded out now." Cooke commented.

"Play it."

"Of course I'm going to play it, Juliet!" Markus pounded the enter key, and a familiar tune started playing.

A piano rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

"...What."

"Okay, I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't _that_."

Markus stared in awe, utterly confused. "This _couldn't _have been JAER."

"Sounds like we need help from Jeremie." Cooke pinched the bridge of his nose, "I... Need a freaking burrito. Food. I'm pissed."

"Aren't we all?"

"Juliet, do you know what would happen if JAER or XANA escaped their super computers?"

"I can't say I would know."

"...Global annihilation." Cooke deadpanned.

"You can't be serious."

"Oh, yeah, it's even _happened_ once. But we don't remember because Jeremie's gang returned to the past."

"But with us not being able to use the scanner, we can't deactivate any of those towers." Markus reminded.

Juliet looked around at the computer screen, and ultimately laid eyes on the audio file, "We need to find the MO of this virus. Who would recognize this file? It's obvious to me that a virus wouldn't hand-pick files."

Cooke planted his face into his palm, "Hey... Remember when XANA _brainwashed your agents_?!"

"But this is the jar one, right? Surely it's not on the same level as XANA."

"We don't even know _what _JAER is capable of! Or what JAER stands for!" Cooke frantically pointed at one of the computer monitors, "And now he's at _full power_!"

"Calm down, the world is still spinning. And as long as it stays that way, we can do something." Markus interjected.

"Like what?"

"Well, let's start off with finding out the significance of that song."

* * *

Jeremie's phone rang. His eyes pried open, as he saw the clock read 2:43 AM through the pitch blackness of his room. He picked up his glasses and slid them on, then answered his phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Markus."

"Activated tower?"

"Uhhh... Yeah, you could say that."

"Where?"

"Yeah... This is where it gets strange. All of them."

Jeremie shot up, "_All_ of them?!"

"Yeah, right after we unlocked seven more sectors."

"_Seven_?!" Jeremie quickly got out of bed and scrambled to find his shoes, "I'll wake everyone up!"

"Wait! Before you do that, we need a mystery solved."

"Uhm... Mystery?"

"Whatever happened to our computer, someone or something left a short song."

"...Go on?"

"It's a piano rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

"Twinkle Twink... I'm gonna go wake up Aelita."

"-And we can't virtualize into Matriks."

"That's not good," Jeremie quickly slipped on his shoes, "I'll be at the factory soon."

"To do what?" Cooke piped over the phone, "You probably can't connect to our computer if we can't virtualize. If we can find out the significance of that song, we'll know more."

"...Alright, I'll stay here. But I think Aelita might have an idea-"

"Wait, _Aelita_ might know?" Cooke snapped his fingers, "Stop right there, I got it. I know what it is!"

"What?"

"If Aelita knows something about that song, it'll likely tie back to Franz Hopper. Just like the code, or Shelda. This is _clearly_ a sign from him!"

"Except, he died." Markus reminded.

"With a clue as big as Shelda, I'm calling it now. I'm ruining the plot twist. It's _gotta_ be Franz!"

"I'm not gonna tell anything that incredulous to Aelita until we know for sure." Jeremie affirmed.

"Incredulous? And here I thought you wouldn't know slang or big English words over there, kudos to you." Cooke remarked.

"Why, thank you."

"Okay, we gotta go, Jeremie. We'll call if we need more help."

"Alright, bye!"

* * *

Markus put away his phone,"...Let's assume you're right, Cooke. Where do we go from here?"

"Nothing. We're done for today."

"How so?" Juliet participated.

"If Franz is truly behind this, it'll work itself out."

"And if he's not?"

"He absolutely, positively, _is_. I have _impeccable _intuition." boasted Cooke.

"But, just for fun, let's say JAER is the one causing this." Markus rolled his eyes, "Then what?"

"Then..." Cooke pondered, "We work out a solution to shut down the super computer without blowing up the entirety of DC."

"So, nothing then?"

"Look, no scanner, no fighting. So if you want to repair whatever is going on with it, be my guest."

Markus sighed, and stood up, "Alright, let's get dinner then."

"Food is good for the mind."

Juliet looked around, "Well, I'll see you for inspection tomorrow then."

"We look forward to it." Markus waved, and the trio split their separate ways.


	17. Sector Two

Code Matriks

Episode 17: Sector Two

By B1ockh3d

Author's Note: So, sorry I'm late! I had a large english paper I was doing, as well as some personal issues I had to handle privately (it's all resolved now.) But! I owe you all a chapter! And here it is! Now that I'm getting off for the summer, the school stress has been alleviated and I'll have a little more time to work on the story! I have the next few big events planned in the story, but I don't want to dive headfirst into them _just_ yet.

I have a little fair warning though, my creativity pool is starting to run dry, which is partially why this chapter is shorter than usual. So, if anyone out there has ideas they think would be cool, feel free to suggest them! I'll credit you properly should I use that idea. Also, I would like some feedback on a chapter idea in advance: I want to make a Lyoko warrior centric chapter, where Markus, Cooke, and Juliet take a backseat to the original Lyoko Warriors we all know and love. They don't appear enough in my story, and I'd like to fix that. Any feedback helps!

Read on (finally)!

* * *

Markus frustratingly tapped away at his laptop in his bed.

"Buddy, you've been at this for several days now." Cooke commented from the bed below him, "You can't recode something that doesn't technically exist."

"It existed, and it worked. Therefore, you're wrong."

"I was talking about _you_ specifically. You are better than me at programming, but I know for a fact you don't have the technical prowess required to make that machine run!"

"And I learn more everyday!" Markus snapped, then drew himself back in, "Look, we've got two super viruses on the loose and we can't just sit idly by and pray we get the software restored."

"Jeremie, Aelita, and the rest of those guys seemed to do fine on their own before we came along. Maybe you shouldn't stress out over it?"

"Oh? How are you _so _calm?"

"It's Franz. I know it." Cooke peered up from below, "And since it's Franz, he knows as well as we do how badly we need to go back. And all the functionality will come back too!"

"You're putting an awful lot of faith into a ghost."

Cooke sighed, "Look, he was digital-based in Lyoko, right?"

"Obviously. Like you are every time you go to Matriks."

"Precisely! What do we do with all of our important digital files?"

"...Back them up."

Cooke smiled, "Wouldn't a super genius back himself up?"

"Except, one thing," Markus panned, "Storage."

"What about it?"

"Franz would need a physical place to store himself. The human brain and all it's functions are about two-and-a-half pentabytes, on top of the billions of other bytes of data needed to keep him stable, so he obviously can't put himself on a flash drive."

"Yeah, true... However, a super computer could do it." Cooke hinted.

"Cooke... He's not on _our _super computer! I've checked the storage, it's all Matriks. I would've noticed a section of the hard drive that large being used!"

"Why are you so adamant that Franz is dead? You're not even _entertaining_ the idea that he's alive!"

"Because if Franz was alive, he'd be helping us destroy XANA!"

"How do you know he _hasn't _been helping?"

"Let's see! We can't use our scanner, all of our towers are activated, Tyron is still brick walling us, oh, and _XANA IS STILL ALIVE_!" Markus stressed, "If that's help, it sure is an _annoying_ way of going about it!"

"Jeez, man! He's not a miracle worker!"

"Which is _exactly_ why I'm trying to replace and repair all the damage done! Because I don't expect Franz to just swoop in and fix everything!"

Cooke bit his tongue, "...He'll pull through. I know it."

* * *

Juliet poured herself a cup of coffee in the break room.

Another agent peeked over his newspaper, "...Black? You could kill a man!"

"That's my intention." She grinned while taking a sip, "Nothing else quite like it. I'm just glad it's not rationed!"

The paper-bearing agent laughed, and went back to his reading. Juliet took her coffee and carefully made her way back to her desk...

...Only to pass a door with a small window, and catching a glimpse of agent Cassinov.

She backed up, and peered through the window. She saw Cassinov, a nerd-looking guy behind a laptop, and one of the bins from Markus' and Cooke's lab. She looked down at the room name, Research and Development.

She swiped her badge and opened the door, "Gentlemen."

"You're not authorized to be here!" Agent Cassinov barked.

"And you two aren't authorized to be taking civilly forfeited property and... Doing what exactly?" She entered the room, and saw their graphene battery prototype on the table hooked up to a breadboard, "Testing it?"

"It's none of your concern."

"I'm just doing what he tells me." The nerdy guy disavowed.

"You can't be doing this, if those two kids find out what you've been doing with their stuff, they can win their civil case, claim damages, _and _make us all look bad!"

"And how exactly are they going to find out? Unless... Someone _tells_ them?"

"One might testify on their behalf."

Cassinov laughed, "Juliet, you are just a desk jockey and you won't understand our work until you become a field agent. But let me give you a piece of advice, stop getting invested into those kids! They don't know you, they don't like you, they're annoyed by the fact you have to check their lab _every single day_. You have to stop treating those kids as kids, and treat them as... Government assets."

"...Are you serious?"

"That's how they think they're being treated, and that's how they should be treated."

"They _aren't _working for us."

"Look, I know your motherly instincts tell you to coddle and cater-"

"Ex-_CUSE _me?!"

"-but! Never make emotional ties with them! Because after a few more months, when we get our lab back, they will never see you ever again."

Juliet furiously shook her head, and stormed out of the room.

"You know it's true!"

* * *

"Quite the opposite, actually." Markus promised, "We're quite fond of you."

"Even Cooke?" Juliet asked, pulling up a chair next to Markus behind the super computer mainframe.

"Yeah, he just doesn't want to admit it."

Juliet chuckled, "Yeah..."

"I think Cassinov is gonna cause real trouble for us, but only if he ever steps foot in our lab again."

"I'll look into it. Right now, he does have authority over government owned property- well, _everyone _who works in our precinct does, but I'll see if I can be classified as a probationary agent for this lab."

"So... We're on _probation_?"

"It'll make everything regarding you two and this lab having to go through me first. Any operations, inspections, even questions."

Markus nodded, "Sounds like a good idea."

"Yeah. And if all goes well, I'll be spending more time here and less time around him!" Juliet smiled, and looked up at the giant screen, "So, what are you up to today?"

"Well... Cliff notes or Shakespeare?"

"I... Don't understand?"

"Cliff notes then, I'm making "drivers" for the scanner, in an attempt to recode their protocols. Right now, I'm gathering the information on your guys' genetic sequences from the scanners for the drivers."

"...And... _Then _they'll work?"

"Sort of. Theoretically, they'll work for you and Cooke, but because I've never been fully transferred, I'll never be setting foot on Matriks. Not that I ever really wanted to..."

"And I guess we're no longer recruiting?"

"Pfff! I had to twist Cooke's arm to recruit _you_. Believe me, he won't let me do it again!"

"Well... I suppose as long as we have reliable backup, we'll be fine then."

"Aelita, Jeremie and their gang? Yeah, they're seasoned veterans."

Suddenly, the supercomputer froze up.

"Uh, is that _supposed _to happen?"

Markus furiously slammed buttons on the keyboard with no avail, "Nnnnope! What just happened?!"

"Can these mega super duper computers even freeze?"

"Apparently! I mean, computers aren't infallible, but, this _shouldn't _happen!"

And just as suddenly, the computer unfroze, but with several windows open scrolling through data.

"Oh, _now_ what?" Markus tried to close one, but was locked out, "...Uh-oh."

"Ohhh no uh-oh!" Juliet warned.

"We're receiving random data packets that I can't understand, I think someone's breaching into our supercomputer!"

"Clean them out! Stop them!"

"I'm trying!" Markus panicked, "...Wait a second!"

"No waiting! Just _do_!"

"No, no, look!" Markus pointed at a non-sensible window open, "If this is a virus, it's several hundred pentabytes large!"

"Where could something that large come from?"

"Well, my immediate concern would be data miners, but this computer shouldn't be accessible from anywhere other than maybe the Lyoko computer." Markus organized the screens, "But, what doesn't make sense is all this data!"

"Well, you have been staring at it for _only_ a minute."

"Typically I can decipher what a code is supposed to be for by just glancing at a few random sections, but there's no consistency. Either this is random junk, or a very elaborate hacking job."

A small progress bar filled up in a window below, and all the windows closed.

"So... Huh. That was weird."

The screen then went dark, and the holographic map shut off as well.

"Uhh... Oh, _crap_! The computer just shut itself _off_!" Markus panicked, "Not good! NOT GOOD!"

"I-is this thing about to go _nuclear_?!"

"IT MIGHT!" Markus furiously scrambled out of his chair and dashed for the stairs.

Right as he left, the monitor made a very distinct clicking noise and the computer whirred back to life.

Markus whipped his head around, "WHAT _EVEN_?!"

The screen booted up like normal, and the holomap materialized.

He slumped back into his chair, and stared at the computer in complete awe, "What... Just... Happened...?"

"Should we call Cooke or your French friends?"

"I have absolutely no idea what I'd tell them, I need to figure out what happened in the first place!" Markus shrieked, "ALL THE TOWERS ARE DEACTIVATED!"

"Excellent!" Juliet celebrated, then calmed back down, "Uh, do we have our scanners back?"

Markus opened another window, and stared at a block of text, "...Holy- We do!"

"Do... Do we have _everything_ back?!"

Markus opened another window, "...Oh my god, I think I know what happened. But- no!"

"I don't play twenty questions, what do you think it is?!"

"I think it... _Updated_! But that's not possible!"

* * *

"HAH!" Cooke slammed his soft drink on the table, "I _told_ you it was Franz!"

"We don't know what or who did this, it could've been a hacker installing a back door for all we know!" Markus refuted.

"But think about it! The timing is _perfect_. We unlock the inner functions of Matriks, allowing Franz to lock us out of the computer, update it to _help_ us, deactivated all the towers, then he returned control back to us!"

"There's no new programs or significant code-"

"I thought you said it was several hundred pentabytes?"

"It is-"

"And you _can't _find anything new?!"

"Several hundred pentabytes is a _lot_ to sift through! Most the stuff I have sifted through is junk! There is no cohesive or consistent pattern to the code I've come across!"

Cooke took a bite out of his burrito, and pondered for a minute, "...So, bloatware?"

"As far as I can tell."

"Well, _someone_ gave it updated software. And I don't believe it's Microsoft with another daily update on Windows Ten: Quantum Computer Edition."

"Alright, who - aside from a dead person - could and would do it?"

"Anonymous?"

Markus shot a dejected glare at Cooke, "Really? They just tore through our firewall without us noticing? And for what good?"

"It's a government computer-"

"Yeah, a LOST government computer."

"Then the government wouldn't know it was hacked, would they?"

Markus shrugged, "Fair point."

"...Ooo! The scanners work now, right?!" Cooke gleamed.

"Yeah."

"Let's go explore the new sectors!"

* * *

Cooke landed on the surface of the ice sector, right next to the tunnel to the passage tower.

"Aww, you couldn't just drop me into whatever sector Juliet went to?"

"Not yet. Next time!"

"The suspense is killing me-" Cooke spun around, "-Uh, are there any monsters around?"

Markus glanced over at one of the other monitors, "None that I can see."

"...Keep me posted about any weird blips."

"Afraid of an ambush?"

"Amongst other things."

* * *

Cooke cautiously entered the passage tower, and jumped into the abyss of blackness, and popped up in a new tower.

"Where am I?"

Markus pinpointed his location on the holomap, "Uhh... Sector... Two. I guess."

"So, no mountain, desert, or forest?"

"Doesn't look like it."

Cooke rolled his eyes and exited the tower.

Outside, the world was a brilliant green with Quartz-like rocks making the scenery, with mountainsides pulsating small green lights underneath its surface, and pathways made of smooth black stones.

"It's green. A rather overwhelming amount of green." Cooke remarked.

"...Says the guy who buys pink tools."

"Hey! I'd like to point out that I've never lost a pink tool ever since I started buying them! Nobody steals them, and everyone knows they're _mine_!"

"Alright Pink Panther, whatever you say. Just don't make a mistake and add Aelita to your collection!"

"Oh, shut it you."

Cooke kept following the black-slated path down to a sharp drop to a steep hill into the digital sea.

"So, still nothing interesting." Cooke updated, "Can you send me a vehicle?"

"I'll send ya the Overwing." Markus responded, spawning the Overwing right in front of Cooke.

Cooke hopped on, "Y'know, I'm kinda surprised at how this is turning out."

"...Explain?"

"No JAER attacking, no XANA trying to gain control of our computer, no anything. It's quiet."

"Dude, quit being so paranoid. I've got your back."

* * *

Cooke flew up to a higher vantage point and looked around, "This is such a weird place? I wonder what the other six sectors are like- what sector did Juliet go into?"

"I don't kn-" Markus was cut off by an alert from the computer, "-ohhhh!"

"What? What's _ohhhh_?!"

"You got seven targets in a V pattern heading your way!"

Cooke drew his short sword and readied, "How far away?!"

"You should be seeing them!"

Cooke spun around in a circle, but saw nothing, "Are you sure?!"

"Yeah! They're right on top of you!"

Cooke looked up, and saw nothing but sky, "Nothing."

"Then... You're on top of them?"

Cooke peered down the side of the Overwing, and saw seven moving creatures that looked like birds flying low to the ground, "I've got em!"

"This is strange, they don't have the same kind of marker as a monster would."

"I'm flying in for a closer look." Cooke informed. He brought down the Overwing behind the flying V, "...Holy, you aren't gonna believe this."

"What is it?"

"Geese! Like, honest to god geese! They look just like they do on earth!"

"A _regular_ animal?!"

"Yeah! In a Quartz-y wonderland!"

"What are _geese_ doing here?!"

Cooke circled them and got a closer inspection, "They're... All unique! All of them have different feather designs."

Markus leaned back in his chair, "I don't understand how or why this is..."

"Are there any other signals on the screen?"

"...Nnno." Markus looked over at the holomap, "...Can you find the Way tower?"

"Which way to the beginning of the sector?"

"Northwest of your current position."

* * *

Juliet logged back into her workstation, only to be approached by agent Cassinov.

"Juliet." He requested, "What happened at your inspection?"

She raised an eyebrow, "I... Inspected? I don't understand your question."

"Tell us about your two kids."

"They're currently not doing anything. They're trying to recoup their losses to keep working."

Cassinov lightly chuckled, "Oh, Juliet. You're so blind. They're smart, which is why they have that cozy lab space. They know if you see any of their new work, it'll be repossessed."

"I highly doubt that." She rolled her eyes, "And you're right, they are smart, so why did you steal from them? They can connect the dots."

"Except we didn't steal. Civil forfeiture la-"

"I thought you _repossessed _their belongings?"

"What difference does it make?"

"We've been over this, if those "dumb kids" figure out you went through the wrong channels to obtain their equipment-"

"-they'll have to go through _our_ appointed judge to get it back! And they won't take it that far. They can't, or they'll lose a lot more than just some equipment."

Juliet gritted her teeth, "Why did you come over here?"

"Oh, well, I'm relieving you of your inspection duties and appointing one of my agents effective immediately."

Juliet sunk, "Any particular reason why?"

"Aside from your obvious obliviousness, it's above your pay grade."

"Really now? _Inspecting_ is above my pay grade?"

"You wouldn't understand. Don't do anything rash."

* * *

Cooke logged into the floating digital console, "Alright, what am I looking for?"

"Literally anything pertaining to this sector." Markus narrowed, "Also, any new information that may have been added with this massive update."

"Right, so... _Everything_?"

Markus sighed, "Just... Open a channel and I'll take it over."

Cooke routed the controls over to Markus and sat down, "How long will it take?"

"It takes as long as we need it to."

"Oh, _lovely_."

"But, with the channel open, I can bring you in, if you want."

"_Please_!"

* * *

Cooke stepped out of the scanner, and hobbled over to Markus, "What's the dealio?"

"...Garbage! Just! More! GARBAGE!" Markus raged, "I don't get it!"

"That's _all_ you're getting from the tower?"

"So far! This computer update has just turned everything that might be useful into random data packs!"

Cooke stroked his chin, "...No. They aren't all random."

"You haven't even _seen_ the data!"

"The consistent pattern is inconsistency! Clearly they're encrypted, we just need to find the key!"

"That's convol-" Markus paused, "...Actually, that's not a bad theory."

"So, we'll collect more data packets, find the key, and unlock them!"

"Yeah, only a few more days before we have enough resources to start, though..."

Cooke huffed, "_Days_?! Isn't this a _super_ computer?!"

"You know as well as I do there's _thousands _of terabytes of data to comb and it takes time!"

"Great, just another thing to add to our growing list of forgotten plot points."

"Wh... What do you even _mean_ by that, Cooke?"

"We've had those documents Kraig gave to us that we haven't even _looked _at! And whatever Anthea put on that flash drive!"

"First of all, I _did_ look through those files, and found nothing we didn't already know. Secondly, it's none of our business what was on that flash drive!"

"But it's _clearly_ important!"

"Not to us!"

Cooke's phone rang, it was Juliet, "Hello?"

"Guys, clean up your lab for inspection, because Cassinov and his men took over my duties!"

"Oh, come on- _Now_?"

"Yes! They're trying to surprise you by coming over immediately, so be prepared for it!"

"Cooke and I are on it. Keep calm, we don't have too much out to clean up."

"And keep that _thing_ sealed!"

"Of course." Cooke hung up the phone, "Well, I guess we better hurry!"

* * *

From behind a curtain, Cassinov watched Juliet leave the restroom and return to her desk swiftly, keeping absolutely emotionless.

"Did you get all that?" Cassinov whispered over his tech expert.

He removed his headphones, "Yeah, she's definitely informing the kids of our moves. And they're doing something big."

Cassinov pulled out his phone and made a call, "...Hey, Earl, come on back. The inspection is pointless now. You won't find anything."

"You sure?"

"We have everything we need already."


	18. Teary Eyes and Throwing Knives

Code Matriks

Episode 18: Teary Eyes and Throwing Knives

By B1ockh3d

Author's note: Hello! I bet you all thought that I completely forgot about this story and no updates were coming, right? Well, I didn't forget. I've been slowly chipping away at the chapter all throughout Summer while I also worked full time, and I started college back up. This is my final year of it! Sorry this took almost 5 MONTHS to get out, but it's been kinda crazy over here on my end, I've finally been able to find time to sit down and finish the chapter. I didn't want to rush it out, because this is a pretty important chapter, and I wanted to make sure I wrote it right. Which included rewriting the first _half_ of it because I didn't like it. And this is a _very_ long chapter! But I hope it was worth the wait, because I have been DYING to post a new chapter for you guys.

Please read on and review!

* * *

"This is strange, I can no longer find JAER anywhere on the network." Markus puzzled.

"Like, *poof!* and gone forever, or gone forever and *poof!* the plot demands his return?" Cooke proposed.

"Only time will tell for certain."

"Does this mean we can shut this thing down?" Juliet queried.

"Oh, I'm sure we could, if we didn't just learn all this new stuff about it!" Cooke blocked.

"Alright, fine, we'll keep the nuclear bomb in the basement of a lab in _Washington DC_ of all places ACTIVE!" She snapped at Cooke, "Your curiosity just stretches out the inevitable!"

"Well, you're both wrong. We don't have complete control of the computer, meaning we still can't shut it down." Markus sighed.

"Are you sure? Did you even_ try_?"

"Trust me, the fact that someone or something uploading a massive file on here proves we don't have as much control as we thought."

"So, where do we go from here?"

"Well, _you_ need to go to work while we keep our lab spotless for our inspection." Cooke summed, "Speaking of which, they didn't come the other day. Why's that?"

Juliet shrugged, "One of Cassinov's men left and I caught wind it was an inspection. But then he came back with a box of bagels for the night crew."

"...Bagels for the _night_ crew? That's a lot of carbs to start off a shift." Cooke remarked.

"Not everyone starts their day with hot cocoa and cinnamon." Markus retorted.

"Oh? _I'm _weird? How many cans of tooth decay do you need to drink every morning to get you moving?"

"Only-"

"GUYS!" Juliet interjected, "As interesting as your morning routines are, we need to stay focused!"

"Erm, right." Cooke shook his head, "Do they normally get bagels?"

"How should I know? It's not my department."

Markus rolled his eyes, "Then we're done for now. You need to get to work, and we got stuff to do."

Juliet nodded, then left. Cooke also left for classes, and Markus stayed behind.

* * *

Aelita spread across her bed, and pulled out her clunky pink DJing headphones. She plugged them into her phone, stretched the headband over her head, and relaxed as the Subdigitals played her day away.

Only a few minutes in, and she head a knocking at her door through her thick headphones. She slipped them around her neck, and approached her door, right as her phone began ringing.

"Well, that was nice while it lasted." She ignored her phone and opened the door, to an awaiting Jeremie, "Jeremie! What's going on?"

"Oh, nothing much, nothing much..." He grinned slyly, "Just, Y'know, figured out a way to get rid of XANA forever. No biggie."

Her eyes grew as big as dinner plates. Finally! After being forced to come out of retirement _twice_, Jeremie found a way to solve their biggest problem once and for all!

"That's _great_! Did you tell the others?!"

"Not yet. I figured maybe you wanted to?"

"Oh, I will!" She pulled out her phone, and noticed something alarming.

A missed call from Jeremie. And a message that read: "SPECTRE ALERT!"

She looked back up at the Jeremie in front of her. There was no way he just found the cure to their XANA disease. This was _absolutely_ the spectre.

"Is something wrong?"

"Tell me, Jeremie, do you remember what happened at the lake?"

"And we won't have a repeat of that-"

"A repeat of _what_?"

Jeremie flinched; he realized his true identity was made. His eyes flickered from normal pupils to XANA symbols.

"AH!"

She was tackled to the ground, and the faux Jeremie clung onto her wrists as XANA drained the remaining code from her body. She was paralyzed from both fear and XANA's powers, unable to scream.

After only a minute — which felt like an eternity — XANA stood up, and began laughing loudly. He dissolved into smoke, and flew into the electrical socket.

Ulrich busted into the room, and found Aelita lying on the floor.

"Aelita!"

She groaned. Ulrich wrapped an arm around her and sat her up, "I... Can't see..."

"Oh no, XANA got you!" Ulrich furiously pulled out his phone and called Jeremie, "Jeremie, bad news!"

"Please don't tell me wh-"

"XANA got to Aelita!"

"No! No! NO!" Jeremie panicked, "Is Aelita okay?!"

"She's temporarily blind. I'll call Odd and get her to the factory."

"...I gotta call Markus and Cooke! Take good care of her!" Jeremie hung up the phone.

"Ul...rich..."

"I'm here, Aelita."

"We have to stop... XANA... From... Leaving the... Cor... Tex..."

"We will."

* * *

Markus sipped away at an energy drink, whilst tapping away at the keyboard. When suddenly, his phone violently rang, breaking his concentration. He answered the phone.

"Hello, Jeremie?"

"_Las urgence! Las urgence!_"

"What- English?!"

"XANA IS AT FULL POWER!"

Right then, the scanner doors shut with a loud _Clang!_

There was nobody on Matriks or Lyoko coming in. Well, nobody _expected_.

The scanner started whirring, and the computer's superscan started beeping.

"Jeremie... I'm gonna need you to call Cooke for me."

"What's going on?!"

"Scanner just activated!" Markus hung up the phone, and picked up a metal rod they stashed next to the desk.

The scanner doors opened, and there stood a ninja, clad in red and black.

Markus' eyes widened in fear, "OH-"

The ninja's arm sprang up and shot a lightning bolt directly at Markus, launching him across the room.

He quickly scurried to his feet and scrambled to grab his metal rod, "YOU WON'T-"

Another shot! Right in the gut! Markus keeled over, and dropped his weapon.

The ninja raised his other hand and began to continuously shock Markus into a corner.

"AHHHHHHH!"

He finally stopped when Markus was limp against the wall. He picked up the metal rod, bent it into a U shape with his freakish XANA-blessed strength, and thrusted it into the wall on either side of Markus' neck, effectively trapping him.

Markus summoned what little energy he had to try pulling the bar out, but it made it even harder that this thing was pressed up against his windpipe and was nearly choking him. The ninja used this to his advantage, and summoned wires from the walls to pull his hands away and lock them down, as well as his legs and torso.

"SSSS-TO-" Markus coughed, gasping for air.

The ninja electrified him one last time, knocking him out for good. He typed something into the computer, then headed straight for the surface to look for Cooke.

* * *

Cooke eyed the whiteboard, and quickly jotted down some notes. His phone lightly buzzed, but he ignored it as this was an exam review class he was taking, and he couldn't lose focus. It buzzed again, a lot more violently. Cooke propped up a binder and answered the call without looking at the screen.

"_What_?!"

"Cooke! It's Jeremie!"

"Is there something going on?"

"XANA is at full power and I think something bad happened to Markus!"

Cooke slipped out into the hallway, "What do you mean by XANA is at full power?!"

"He can expand outside the Cortex, take over computers, and create Replikas to increase his power!"

Cooke held his face in his palm, "...Okay, how's Markus? What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know! I think something came out of your scanner! We called to tell him what happened, then he told me to- look, he's in trouble! I'll spare you the details!"

"Alright, I'll run there as fast as-" the lights flickered, "...Uhh... The lights are... Not good!"

"Hang tight!" Jeremie advised, and pulled up a view of their school's power grid, "...There is a large amount of energy being drawn in the southeast campus!"

"Great, that's the path I need to go to get to the lab!" Cooke slammed his fist against the wall, "...How did we defeat the XANAfied agents last time?"

"I took over your school's PA system and overloaded it, but it only worked for a moment!"

"Okay..." Cooke scratched his head and calmed down, "He's coming for me, and I gotta fight him."

"We'll get on Matriks as fast as possible to deactivate the tower!"

"You used my school's PA to create tiny EMP bombs that worked on a larger scale, right?" Cooke plotted.

"Yeah, do you think you could make a bigger one in a few minutes?"

"I'm in the northwest campus, the engineering lab is in the northeast."

"...Meaning?"

"I can't build a big EMP." Cooke paced, "...Will any source of electricity work?"

"If you can figure out how to short-circuit a human possessed by a virus by something other than a EMP, now would be the time to do it!"

Cooke eyed an electrical extension cord, "...I gotta go, I'm about to make a fire hazard. Get Juliet to the lab."

"Don't burn down the building while you're in it!" Jeremie hung up, highly concerned.

* * *

Juliet drove down the freeway to her headquarters in her large black government SUV, right as she received a call from a blocked number. She answered it.

"This is Agent Juliet Michaelson-"

"JULIET! It's Jeremie! From France!"

"As opposed to the Jeremie I know in Uruguay?"

"THIS IS NO LAUGHING MATTER XANA JUST GAINED HIS FULL POWER AND MARKUS AND COOKE ARE IN DANGER!"

Juliet flipped a switch on her dashboard that activated the lights and sirens, "Where am I going?!"

"What?!"

"LAB OR SCHOOL?!"

"The lab! Markus is in danger!"

Juliet hung up and muscled her way through traffic to an exit, and headed straight to the lab. Without skipping a beat, she rang up Cooke.

"Hey! How's it going?" Cooke forcibly cheered, while knocking over something large in the background.

"Cooke, are you okay?!"

"Peachy!"

"What are you doing?!"

"Looking for two letter openers and- h-hey!" The sound of a drawer opening transmitted through the phone, "Thick rubber gloves!"

"Will you make it to the lab?"

"I hope so! This is gonna-"

_K-KRAACK!_

_"_COOKE!"

"Woah! He's already here! I gotta go!" Cooke hung up.

Juliet floored the gas pedal and kept on moving.

* * *

Cooke tucked himself under the teacher's desk, carefully looking around. He saw he was in the chemistry room, outfitted with various types of fire extinguishers; most notably, one completely reflective.

He saw the door open in its reflection, and a black and red figure walked in. What was he to do?

He put on the rubber gloves and threw the extension cord over his shoulder, then quietly grabbed one of the fire extinguishers. He looked back at the reflective fire extinguisher, and couldn't see him, but he knew the ninja was still in the room.

He took a deep breath, pulled the pin to the extinguisher, and burst up ready to fire!

But so was the ninja. With an arrow already aimed at Cooke from across the room.

"Uh... Oh no." Cooke squeezed, but he wasn't fast enough. The ninja fired first, nailing the extinguisher in Cooke's hands.

The extinguisher burst, throwing Cooke against the wall, and filling the room with a thick fog.

The ninja has no problem finding Cooke curled up on the ground. He grasped him by the collar and threw him into the storage closet, then knocked down a shelf's worth of contents on top of him. Immobile, the ninja shocked Cooke.

"AHHHHHHHHhhhh-" Cooke fainted.

The ninja attempted to slam the door shut, but noticed a bottle of bleach had blocked him from closing it. He removed it, shut the door, then emptied the contents over the ground in front of the closet door. He then scanned the room, and located a large bottle of ammonia. He threw the contents of that bottle on top of the bleach and left the room, zapping the door lock so no one could get in.

* * *

Juliet ran down the stairs, and saw Markus restrained against the wall.

"Oh my god!" She ran over, "Markus, wake up!"

She gave him a couple lights slaps to the face, and he slowly came to.

"Guhhh..."

"Markus, don't move, you're pretty well banged up!"

He sighed, "I... Know..."

"We need to get you out of this."

"There's... Liquid nitrogen... Upstairs... Just, pour some on this bar... And... Hammer it off."

"God, you guys overthink way too much." Juliet grabbed the metal bar around Markus' neck, put a foot on the wall, and pulled the bar out with all her strength.

Markus gasped for air, and coughed, "That... That works... Too..."

"You're welcome." Juliet pulled all the wires holding Markus down away from him.

"Cooke...?"

"I don't know what's going on with him, but am I correct in assuming the sooner we deactivate that tower, the sooner we help Cooke?"

Markus nodded lightly, and slowly lifted his arms from the wire trap, "Can you... Help me to the chair?"

"Sure." Juliet wheeled the chair over to Markus, and helped him in.

"Is the tower solid red?"

"I don't know what that means, but I'm going to assume that it is." Juliet answered as she wheeled him to the keyboard.

He began slowly pecking at the keyboard, and gradually picked up speed, "...Oh crap."

"Oh, please don't say that. What's wrong?"

"XANA collapsed the data tunnel and locked Lyoko's access to our system!" Markus buried his face in his hands.

"Meaning?"

Markus turned slowly towards Juliet in his chair, "Meaning, this is one-hundred percent all you. There is no back up coming to help."

Juliet took a deep breath, "Time to put my cloaking ability to the test."

Markus fired up the scanner, and Juliet stepped in.

"Don't die, I don't know what XANA wants to do with our computer, and I'd rather not find out."

"Got it." Juliet waved as the scanner doors closed.

"Transfer..."

* * *

Juliet fell to the ground, landing perfectly on her feet.

"Y'know, this is slowly growing on me." Juliet commented as she drew a knife.

"I'm glad it is." Markus adjusted his glasses, "What do you see?"

"Sea."

"Yes, see? What do you _see_?"

"Sea!"

"See what?!"

"I see _sea_!"

"You... Sea?"

"S-E-A SEA!" Juliet barked.

"I... See." Markus gathered himself, "You see sea."

"For the love of everything that is holy- _yes_!"

"I got it. What kind of sea?"

"What... Like sea sea."

Markus grasped his face, "The digital sea... Or... Like our actual real life sea we have on Earth?"

"The second one." Juliet affirmed.

"Okay... Hold on, I'm gonna call Jeremie."

"I see." Juliet grinned.

* * *

Jeremie ran with Odd, Yumi, and William towards the factory, when he received a call from Markus.

"Markus! We're almost there!"

"Bad news, XANA cut your access!"

Jeremie halted everyone, "What?! How?"

"What's going on?" Yumi pressed. Jeremie turned his speakerphone on.

"XANA collapsed the data tunnel, completely obliterated our firewall, and replaced it with his own."

"Has he done anything else?" Jeremie began running and waving the gang to continue forward.

"Ah- well, there's not much more I _can _do. I've..." Markus trailed, with the sound of keyboard clicks filling in the space, "...Lost control of the return to the past procedures, vehicles, direct scanner transfers... Basically, I can only virtualize people and look at the map."

"How's Cooke?" Odd concerned.

"That's my next task!"

"Alright, just hold XANA off until we figure how to help!" Jeremie hung up, "You heard him guys, we're not looking good."

"Actually," William raised a brow, "I might have an idea."

"Oh, _this'll_ be grand." Odd rolled his eyes.

"I'm all-ears." Jeremie shrugged, "Because I'm all out of ideas."

"We're really going to XANA's former lackey?!"

"Do _you _have an idea you'd like to share, Odd?" Yumi snapped.

Odd bit his lip, and shook his head.

"...Anyways, I don't quite understand how the Skid works, but could you reprogram it?"

"Reprogram it... In what way?"

* * *

Cooke awoke violently, with the noxious smell of chlorine and ammonia assaulting his nostrils and causing his eyes to water.

He coughed, "Ammonia... Gas!"

He pulled himself up with a shelf, realizing his right leg didn't feel right. He looked down at it, and realized it was completely dislocated.

"Oh... Fun!" He coughed again. He checked the door, but it was obviously locked. So, first things first, he had to seal the door from the gas.

He found a roll of orange tape with BIOHAZARD printed in black ink all over it. Propping himself up, he sealed the sides of the doorframe, and stuffed a few rags at the bottom and taped them in. But, he couldn't reach the top.

He pulled out his phone, but it was no use. XANA fried it.

He looked up, and saw an air conditioning vent. Not nearly big enough to climb into, but maybe big enough to stick his head into, and get air. Only problem was, he couldn't climb up that shelving unit in his current condition. Also, it wasn't a particularly hot day, so the school wasn't running the air conditioner.

Meaning the ammonia gas could also spread through the vents to other parts of the building.

Cooke wiped the tears from his eyes, covered his face with his shirt, and slowly started climbing.

"Markus... Please be on top of this."

* * *

"...Cooke's phone isn't ringing." Markus slammed a fist the desk.

"Uhm... I called Cooke, he said he was looking for two letter openers." Juliet added.

"Letter openers?! _Really_?!" Markus scratched his head, "What was he _thinking_?!"

"I don't know! But I could really use some sort of direction down here!"

Markus regained his grip of the situation, "Okay... What _exactly _do you see- I mean, observe?"

"I'm on some sort of island, complete with sand, palm trees, so on, and I can see- er, _observe_, a few other islands around, one of which has an inactive tower. But I have a sea separating me from these other islands."

Markus sat back and pondered, "...Unfortunately, I can't send you a vehicle."

"I'll figure it out." Juliet nodded, "Focus on Cooke."

"Hello?" Jeremie patched in, "Can you guys hear us?"

"Well, I'm glad we can still communicate." Markus sighed in relief, "What's going on over there?"

"Aelita and Ulrich just got here, she's still recovering her sight-"

"Wait, she's _blind_?!"

"Only temporarily! I'll explain later!" Jeremie assured, "I'm going to reprogram the digital key system on the Skid to read user genetic identification."

"Even I have no idea what those words mean, but I assume it'll be helpful towards our problem." Markus hoped.

"What's the Skid?" Juliet asked.

"That's their ship that can dive into the digital sea and travel through the network." Markus froze in realization, "...Aaaaaand we have a smaller version called the MantiSkid that can do the same thing."

"Can I use that to get around the islands?"

"Islands? What are you guys dealing with over there?" Jeremie piped up.

"New sector, weird biome. I'll explain later." Markus furiously tapped away at his keyboard, "...Yes! I still have access to the MantiSkid!"

"Send it my way!"

"Aaaaand it'll be there shortly!" Markus contentedly sat back, then leaned back forward, "Time to go help Cooke."

* * *

Cooke, now precariously leaning his back on one side of the closet while his left foot held him up on a shelf as he was dangling from a few feet high, carefully taped up the top of the door.

"There... All... Sealed..." He hacked up a cough, "Still... Too much... Exposure..."

He slumped his head back to focus on his next challenge, the air vent. Conveniently screwed into the ceiling for ease of access.

"Great..." He looked around, spotting only a Bunsen burner next to his head, "There's a smart idea... Just ignite the fumes..."

He had to think of something fast, because there's only so much time until his leg gave way.

He looked back at vent, and noted the screws in place were flatheads.

"Okay... Something hard and flat." Cooke reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet.

He drew a credit card, and jammed it into the screw head.

"...This isn't gonna work." He realized, and slipped his fingers under the side of the vent and pulled. Fortunately, he pulled out the screw and its drywall anchor, effectively removing the vent.

He hopped up one shelf, and jammed his head into the narrow vent.

"HELLO!" He shouted, "TURN ON... AC!"

No response.

"AMMONIA GAS IS... IN THE... SYSTEM! PURGE IT!" He panted.

But still, with no avail.

He took a couple deep breaths of fresher air, and could start to taste the fumes seeping its way into the vents.

"EVACUA-" his foot slipped, "-AAAAAAAAATE!"

He crashed down on the floor. He looked back up at the exposed vent, and sighed. He exerted most of his energy getting himself up there with only one foot and leg, there was no way he could do it again.

"C'mon guys..." He succumbed to the gas, and fainted again.

* * *

"Alright, so, Cooke was in his morning physics class, and he was in the north-west area of campus." Markus pondered.

"Are you serious right now? Can't you just look up what building his class is in?" Juliet paced.

"It's building forty-seven. I already know that." Markus pulled up a map of the school campus on screen, "But that doesn't necessarily mean he stayed there."

"Have you even _tried _calling him? He might not be in danger anymore."

"His phone is dead, and he always keeps it fully charged _and_ you talked to him using it." Markus deduced, "Phones don't just die randomly."

"So, what's the theory, Sherlock?"

"His phone has been shorted, likely due to a sudden high-voltage surge directed at him."

"Well, he _did_ hang up on me because XANA entered the room."

"You got a play-by-play of his situation and you _believed_ he made it out okay?!" Markus scoffed.

"Jeez, sorry for being optimistic."

"Now... What did he want with two letter openers?"

"No idea... Oh! He also found thick rubber gloves wherever he was!"

"Thick rubber... Huh. I can't think what department would-" Markus snapped his fingers, "The chemistry rooms! Those are above the physics rooms!"

"See? I can be helpful."

"Okay, okay... Progress." Markus pushed, "There are approximately eighteen chemistry labs in the building spread apart two floors. Question is, how do we figure out which one Cooke is in?"

"Can't you guys find electrical flows and follow it or something?" Juliet shrugged.

"Uhh... Not exactly sure what you mean by that. But that does give me another idea." Markus smirked.

"It's something at least." Juliet sat down. She looked out over the water, and noticed a large ripple about 50 feet away, "…Huh."

"Huh? What's huh?"

"There seems to be something… Coming up from the water?"

Markus stopped what he was doing and looked over at the virtual map, "I don't see anything."

"There's _definitely_ something under the water."

"Well, this _is_ a new sector, it's likely something we haven't seen yet." Markus shrugged, and continued working on his plan.

The water parted, and what looked like a transparent dome with a brain popped through.

"Yeah, it just poked through. Funny looking thing."

"Hmm, still isn't showing up on the map."

It rose a little bit farther, revealing a bottle-like body and tentacles. It sort of resembled a squid.

"It's a flying squid, wow!" Juliet chuckled, "This place just gets better and better."

"Wait wait wait, _what_?!" Jeremie tuned back in.

"Can you describe it?!" Markus shook.

The creature fully emerged from the water, revealing the full length of its tentacles.

"It actually looks a lot more like a jellyfish, with the long tentacles-"

"SCYPHOZOA! RUN!" Jeremie and Markus screamed in perfect unison.

Suddenly, two Krabs emerged from the water on either side of Scyphozoa, unleashing a hail of lasers. Juliet scrambled to her feet and ran into the trees of the small island.

"What is this _thing_?!"

"It wants to suck your _brains_!" Markus summed dramatically.

"Clarification?!"

"The Scyphozoa is a monster used by XANA to either steal your genetic coding, implant genetic coding, or just plain brainwash you!"

"THAT SOUNDS BA-" Juliet was literally cut off by a gigantic sword impaling the ground in front of her.

"Going somewhere?" a static voice taunted. Juliet looked to her right, and grinning at her was a boy in a black and green outfit with a XANA symbol occupying his forehead.

"You must be William!" She blurted in fear. He gently bowed.

"I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING ON MY MAP! I'M BLIND! I CAN ONLY SEE _YOU_!" Markus freaked out.

Juliet drew a knife, and slashed at William. He grabbed her arm, and flipped her over on the ground. She drew another knife, swept his legs, and rolled over on top of him. He held her arm back holding the knife slowly inching towards his face.

"Very cute. Want to see what my knife can do?" He taunted, and summoned his sword, knocking her back.

She threw a knife, which he blocked fairly easily. She drew another and threw it, blocked as well. Drew out three, and threw them at different intervals. One managed to break past his sword, hit him in the chest, and knocked him back. She drew out a couple more, and landed a couple extra hits, until the Krab butted its way in and started firing at her.

He got back up, "…Very crafty."

Juliet noticed there was one knife in the sand. She tucked her foot under it, and kicked it up at the Krab, who blasted such a feeble attack.

"Not so crafty."

"It was nice meeting you bye!" Juliet quickly touched the eye on her gauntlet and activated cloaking. William drew his sword from the ground and swung, but didn't hit anything.

He looked down at the ground, and saw footprints forming past him, leading to the beach. A Krab caught up with him, he hopped on top and pointed the way.

* * *

"Markus, is there any way we can help?" Aelita chimed in.

"Are… You up for it?"

"I'm still a little blurry, but I think I can see a screen."

"Okay, uhh… Do you have a spare computer on you?" Markus queried, gathering his thoughts.

Aelita pulled out her laptop and a cable, and plugged into a port on the back of the mainframe monitor for the supercomputer, "Yes, what do you need?"

"Alright… Alright… The school has many RFID controlled locks."

"You need me to break into your school's security network?"

"Exactly! And Cooke is presumed to be in building forty-seven, on floors three or four."

Jeremie tapped at his keyboard, "Aelita, you have access now."

"They really oughta up their security. There are bad people out there!" Odd joked.

"Right? I've told them that so many times-"

"Guys," Aelita refocused Markus, "What do you need?"

"Unlock all rooms on those levels!"

"What are you hoping to accomplish?" Yumi puzzled.

"I'm hoping to rule out a possibility." Markus bit on his nails.

Aelita viewed a digital layout of their school, and deactivated all locks on the two floors.

"…One lock doesn't look like it's working!"

Markus buried his face in his hands, and screamed, "THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT!"

"Room three-eighteen-"

"OF COURSE IT'S _THREE-EIGHTEEN_!" Markus exhaled, and unclenched his face, "I… Just don't know what to _do_!"

Aelita squinted at the blueprints for the building, "I'm having a hard time seeing, but…It doesn't look like your school has a chemical suppression system. What's the temperature outside?"

"Wha… What does one have to do with the other?"

"Mar_kus_!"

"It's in the lower to mid sixties outside."

Aelita looked up vaguely in Jeremie's direction with a quizzical expression.

"Seventeen degrés." Jeremie corrected. Aelita nodded.

"Oh, right. Metric system. It's chilly out." Markus clarified.

"I… Don't think the building's air conditioner isn't on."

"Why would it be?"

"I'm turning it on, full."

"Why's that?" Ulrich asked.

"TI can't see any trace of a spectre there by the energy levels, and Cooke has to be in that room. Given that his phone shorted out-"

"And he's in a chemistry room!" William bewildered.

"You're purging the system of any chemicals that might be in the vents!" Markus deduced, "That's genius!"

"That's Miss Einstein for ya!" Odd patted Aelita on the back.

"I hope we aren't too late!" Juliet chimed back in.

"Juliet!" Markus sprang back forward, "What's the situation?"

"Still living, but my cloaking ran out and it needs to recharge."

"It's okay! The MantiSkid is only… Oh…" Markus sighed, "It's twenty minutes out."

"Oh, _swell_! So much for _shortly_!"

"_Tout le monde_! Scanners!" Jeremie barked, "We're reprogramming the Skid, we'll just have to finish it on the way there!"

Everyone dashed to the elevator, except Aelita.

"Aelita! Allons!" Odd called out.

She shook her head, "You don't need me, I have to help Jeremie."

"You'll get your full sight back if you go to Lyoko! Plus, who's gonna pilot the Skid?" Ulrich concerned.

"Well, the key is going to be genetically generated by whoever the pilot is…" Jeremie bit his lip, "And Because William is the only person genetically connected to XANA…"

Odd scowled, "_Non_!"

"_Really_?!" Ulrich agreed.

"I don't know _what's_ going on over there, but there's a guy with a really big sword headed at me and I don't like it!" Juliet broke.

"We don't have time for this!" Yumi lectured while hitting the down button.

Odd and Ulrich huffed, and William smiled ever so gleefully.

* * *

A professor fiddled with the air conditioning controls, but they appeared to be locked. She couldn't even shut it off.

"Sorry class," she apologized, "It's going to get a little chilly."

The entire classroom collectively sighed.

"Now, I have here a vial of Gallium, which has a melting point of eighty-five degrees-"

"Uhh, professor?" a student interrupted, "I smell ammonia?"

"Woah, me too! I thought I was going crazy!" another added.

The professor quickly inhaled through her nose, it was an _incredibly_ strong scent. It even caused her eyes to water up.

"Out. Everyone out _now_!" She wiped her eyes, and pulled the fire alarm to evacuate the building. The students quickly exited the room, then the building.

* * *

"Good news, someone pulled the fire alarm and the building is evacuating!" Aelita updated.

"It wasn't _before_? I thought you activated the alarm!" Markus stressed.

"I couldn't see the alarm controls." Aelita defended.

"It got done!" Jeremie finished.

"Alright… Fair enough." Markus calmed down, "Soon enough, HAZMAT will be on scene and they'll find Cooke, in whatever condition he's in. Hopefully a good one."

"What's the response time?" Aelita concerned.

"Small, because we're located in Washington D.C.-"

"Guys? Backup?" Juliet reminded.

Jeremie looked at his virtual map, "They're in Sector Five, almost at the Skid."

"That's great and all, but there's two orange monstrosities charging up their lasers!"

Markus stroked his chin, "…Okay, just swim away."

"What?"

"It's not the digital sea, right?" Markus deducted, "And they came out of this ocean, right?"

"Right… And right."

"Swim!"

"Plus, you don't breath oxygen on Matriks or Lyoko, which would making swimming the logical choice." Jeremie expanded.

"Okay, swim. Got it."

Juliet dove into the water, and began swimming downwards, as several laser blasts flew past her head.

"GUYTHS- OP!" Juliet blubbered.

"So, she's still held by the some of the laws of Earth on Matriks. Like being unable to talk underwater." Markus scratched his head.

"DO SOMTHNGHF!"

"…So you need scuba gear!"

"BUGAIDONEETBREEHTH!"

"But you'll be able to speak!"

Markus quickly coded up a program, and activated it. A clear digital display appeared in front of Juliet's face, and it automatically clung to Juliet's face.

"AH! Oh! It works!" Juliet sighed.

"Oh thank goodness… I didn't know if I could do that. It's _very_ basic, so be careful!"

"I have another update," Jeremie jumped back in, "I'm listening to your city's police scanner, and HAZMAT has been called to clean up _ammonia gas_!"

Markus shuddered, "That's _lethal_."

"Tell me where that tower is!" Juliet fiercely demanded.

"It's… Huh." Markus cocked his head, "Directly beneath you."

Juliet looked down as she passed a sea wall, and saw nothing but darkness, "Uh, how far down?"

"It looks like a few hundred meters."

Juliet looked behind her, and saw and evil William attempting to turn into smoke, but with no avail. The Scyphozoa wasn't slowed down a bit by the water.

"I don't know what William is trying to do, but he can't seem to do it."

"Makes sense, smoke doesn't work in water." Jeremie nodded.

"But that jellyfish thing is gaining on me!"

"Can you throw any knives?" Markus bit his nails.

"No!" Juliet kept furiously swimming downwards, "If I was just a little bit heavier I could-"

She had an epiphany. She looked back at Wiliam, who gave up whatever he was trying and kept swimming.

"You could what?"

"Sink faster." She stopped and turned herself around, "I need his sword."

"There isn't a rock around you can pick up and use to sink yourself?" Markus scratched his head in befuddlement.

"Not where I am." Juliet drew a knife, and baited William over. On cue, the Scyphozoa stopped and let William ahead to fight.

"There's nowhere to run." William synthesized a chuckle.

"Then let's fight." Juliet invited.

He grinned slyly, and relaxed his arms. As if he was waiting.

Something wasn't right.

* * *

"I sure hope you know what you're doing, Juliet. Because I can't reALL-"

Markus was yanked abruptly from his chair by his shirt collar and slammed into the wall behind him.

_The XANAfied archer has returned!_

"HELP-"

Rather than spending time with Markus, he just zapped him until he was unconscious.

Content with his work, he super-speeded their way down into the computer room, where the looming tower that contains Matriks was held. He walked up to the main tower, gripped it from both sides and started draining energy from it.

After a minute or so of absorption, he bolted back upstairs into the main room. He picked up the chair behind the desk and threw it at Markus still curled up in the corner, and began typing at an insane speed on the keyboard.

* * *

"Markus?" Juliet called out, "What's wrong?"

Suddenly, her mask disappeared. Along with the knife she was holding.

"MARKUTH!" She blubbered, "JEREMER!"

"Ahhh!" Jeremie panicked, "Why aren't you guys in the Skid yet?!"

"ARE YOUTH SEREUTH?!"

"We're running!" Odd answered, "Boy Genius and Boy Jealous super-smoked and super-sprinted their way there already!"

"William! Ulrich! I'm transferring you both in now, be ready to launch the second Odd and Yumi transfer in!

"Walk me through it." William nodded.

"Do we _really _have to let him drive?!" Ulrich argued.

William sighed, "Look, I understand why you don't like me and don't want me to do this. But the reality is this is our only chance to save Juliet and possibly Cooke."

"When did _you_ get all soft?!"

"You call this _soft_?! I'm taking this seriously!"

"Transferring!" Jeremie interrupted, and teleported them into their respective seats.

"The first panel to your right has all the controls to undock." Aelita summed, "Once you get out, use the control sticks to dive into the sea."

"Makes perfect sense." William shook his head, dauntingly looking around at all the various buttons and switches that cover the interior.

"Don't worry William, I'll get you guys into the digital sea from here!" Jeremie reassured.

"So I _don't_ need to worry about undocking?"

"Yeah, I'll take you guys out." Jeremie gave the thumbs-up to Aelita.

"GUYTH! HETHP COMNG!" Juliet pleaded.

"They'll be there in less than ten minutes!" Jeremie promised.

"I DONB THINKH I HAVB TENN MINUTHS!"

Odd and Yumi caught up, and Jeremie wasted no time transferring them in and quickly launching the Skid.

"Now, as soon as you're in the digital sea, go to the second network hub off starboard to the ship and it'll take you straight on through to the Matriks network!" Jeremie advised.

"So…"

"He means to the right." Aelita clarified, and shot Jeremie a thumbs-up back.

The Skid dove into the digital sea, and William took over the controls as they shot out of Lyoko.

* * *

Markus cracked open his eyes, and saw the archer fast at work behind the keyboard. He was too sore to move a limb; there was no way he could fight back. He was underpowered, and completely defenseless to XANA. He instead waited, and watched the archer wreak havoc. He couldn't make out what was happening, because his glasses had flown off his face. All he saw was red windows popping up, clearly errors or warnings about something internal within the computer.

The archer stopped, and Markus closed his eyes. All he heard was footsteps, and the scanner doors closing, followed by the whirring sound the scanner makes when it's virtualizing a person. He reopened his eyes and looked around, he was alone again. He pulled himself up, and shuffled his feet around until he found his glasses. Much to his dismay, he found them with the right lens completely cracked like a spider web.

"What…Ever…" He groaned. Pushing past his unfortunate obstacle, he quickly grabbed the chair and sat behind the keyboard.

Looking up at the screen, all he saw was red windows. There were errors for the scanner, for Juliet's weapons, for the Mantiskid, for the computer itself, for the cooling chamber; literally anything that had a function had an error.

"Ehhhh crap…"

One error in particular was the power levels. It was too low to even think about launching a return to the past.

"Je… Jeremie? Juliet?"

Communications were also broken. He pulled out his phone, but that was already fried.

With a heavy sigh, he pulled himself back together and began fixing the errors.

* * *

Evil William let out another laugh, and summoned his sword, which oddly didn't sink him. Instead of Juliet being confident, all that fell over her was fear. She had no way of taking him on.

Panicked, Juliet hit her now fully recharged cloaking. Unfortunately, while she isn't visible, her body outline is clearly visible due to the water surrounding her. William grinned.

"Accept your fate!"

"JEREMER! HEL-"

William took one swing, and an energy beam trailed off the sword hitting Juliet square in the chest. Her useless cloaking subsided, as she flailed about in the water trying to gain traction.

"Please, this is _hard_ to watch!" William mocked, prepping his sword for another slash.

"MARKUTH! DO SOMPFING!" she cried out, but still no response.

"Hold on Juliet! We're coming!" Yumi responded.

"HURR-"

William struck again, nailing a beam on Juliet's head, effectively knocking her out.

He laughed, and shook his head, "I expected so much more from you. Allow me to help."

William floated aside, and let the Scyphozoa past him towards Juliet.

* * *

The Skid shot out of the network hub, and they began rapidly approaching the entrance to Matriks.

"Hit the Retrobrakes!" Aelita yelled.

"Uhhh!"

"Big button on your left!"

William slammed the button on his left, and the Skid came to a sudden halt.

"Phew… Thanks Aelita." William breathed.

"The genetic key program should be uploading into the Skid's mainframe now!" Jeremie proudly hit the enter key, "It should only take a minute."

"I see it." William confirmed.

"Guys, I haven't heard from Juliet since we entered the hub!" Yumi concerned.

Jeremie punched away at the keyboard, "Weird… We lost contact with Markus, but we didn't with Juliet. There shouldn't be a reason we can't talk to her."

"Unless she's been devirtualized!" Ulrich reminded.

"No, no." Jeremie settled, "Her card is still up on Matriks. But I can't see any of her statistics."

"Maybe she's cloaking. She can't talk while cloaking, or it'd defeat the purpose of it." Aelita suggested.

"Maybe she's chatting up William!" Odd teased.

"Very funny." William rolled his eyes, "How do I start this thing?"

"You have to fold the Skid up, approach the doorway, and launch the digital key with the rectangular pad over to your right." Aelita instructed.

"Okay, so…" William cautiously pressed a button next to the left control stick, and the Skid folded back up into the tower form, "Okay, we aren't de-"

"AHHHH! YOU IDIOT!" Odd screamed.

"Oh crap what did I _do_?!"

"HAH! Sike!" Odd laughed, "We're still here."

"…How do I drain the shields for individual NavSkids?" William deadpanned.

"Guys, stay focused!" Yumi realigned.

"Sorry." William apologized, "Alright, key thing."

He navigated the Skid directly behind the door, and launched the key. It shot out as an orange beam, instead of the normal white beam.

"It's…" Jeremie trailed, "…Online! It's working!"

"I got to hand it to you, William. That was very clever thinking." Aelita complimented.

_Blip!_

William looked down at the display, "…Uh, huh. There's something on my radar."

Odd looked around, "The sea isn't red though. It can't be XANA."

_BLIP!_

"Whatever it is, it's coming towards us!" William alarmed.

"How fast is it?!" Jeremie pulled up a digital map of the area.

_**BLIP!**_

Yumi looked out, and saw the MantiSkid heading straight at them at full speed, "It's the MantiSkid!"

The MantiSkid crashed into the main control head of the Skid, knocking the key out of alignment.

* * *

Markus furiously cleared up errors as they popped up, sifting through which ones were red herrings and which ones were real errors; until suddenly, it all froze.

"Oh come _on_ not now of all times!" Markus cried.

A new window appeared, showing Juliet's avatar model. It zoomed in on her head, and highlighted her brain. Numbers started counting down beside it.

"I… Don't recognize this screen!" he shrieked. Whatever it was, it wasn't a nice screen. He pushed it aside, and refocused his attention on the errors. His biggest concern was communications, and the map. Hopefully he could see what Juliet around her. William, the Krabs-

"…THE SCYPHOZOA!" he began violently shaking, and pulled back the brain screen, "Oh no no NO!"

He had less than two minutes until that countdown was over, and there's no telling what XANA was going to do.

* * *

"How do I launch the NavSkids?!" William straightened himself.

"Pull three of the levers to your right!" Aelita tensed up.

William managed to launch the three occupied NavSkids, which then went out after the MantiSkid.

"Why is it doing this?!" Jeremie rubbed his head, "It doesn't appear to have a pilot, nor does it look like it was hacked! It's like Markus sent it out on us!"

The Mantiskid flipped around, and headed straight towards Ulrich's NavSkid.

"I'll stop it!" Ulrich fired two shots, which were absorbed by the shields of the ship. He pulled up out of the way, "Dangit! It's pretty agile!"

William pulled the ship back up to the door to Matriks, but couldn't launch a new key, "Uh, new problem."

"Just what we need!" Odd commented.

"I can't launch a new key!"

"It's okay, I can walk you through doing a manual override-"

"Shut up!" William formed a ball of smoke in his hand and slammed it against the pad. A purple, smoky beam shot out into the keyhole, "Does that work?!"

"I… Yeah! I'm connected, but it isn't very strong!" Jeremie flustered, "If I borrow some of the power from the super computer, I can breach the firewall!"

Aelita whipped her head up at Jeremie, "But we won't be able to launch a return to the past if we do that!"

"But they still can!" Jeremie reassured, "It's a safer bet than using the Skid's power!"

The MantiSkid flew behind William, with NavSkids in tow.

"Can we destroy this thing?" Odd asked, locking on.

"I'd hack into, but I'm just too busy!" Jeremie shook his head.

"It's no use, I can't override it either. XANA reprogrammed it." Aelita seconded.

"So, is that a yes?" Ulrich queried, also locking on.

Jeremie exhaled a sigh, "Yeah. Blow it. I gotta make a new one for them anyways."

Yumi locked on, "I'm locked in. Let's fire on three."

"One."

"Two."

"Three!"

All three fired, hitting the MantiSkid with torpedoes. It blew up in a spectacular fashion, leaving only debris sinking down into the abyss.

The trio latched back onto the Skid, right as the door opened.

William released his hand from the pad, "Ho! We did it!"

"Get in!" Jeremie pulled at his hair.

William guided the ship in, and they all found themselves in a watery ocean that looked nothing like the digital sea, but a lot more like the real ocean.

"We're in an ocean-like sector." Ulrich updated.

"Sounds like the right one." Jeremie relaxed, finally.

"H-H-H-Hellll-ll-llloo-oo?" A familiar voice cracked through the speakers.

"Markus?!"

"Yes! I fixed it!" Markus celebrated, "Guys! We are NOT doing great! I think Juliet got taken by-"

"THE SCHYPHOZOA!" Yumi frantically pointed at the scene in front of them.

The Schyphozoa dropped Juliet, and quickly swam away.

"…The countdown thing hit zero!" Markus freaked.

The evil William clone looked up at the Skid, making eye contact with the real William.

"Welcome to the party!" he laughed, throwing his sword point-first at Juliet.

* * *

"Michaelson! Get up!" a hazy voice called out, "We've got three more hostiles and I'm black on ammo!"

Juliet looked down; she was wearing camouflage and holding a rifle. She wasn't in control; her body was just running on autopilot. She reached for her belt and pulled out another clip.

"Emmerson! Clip!" She handed the now not-so hazy man also wearing camouflage.

She could smell the dirt and gunpowder in the air. Felt the weight of the equipment draped on her body. Tasted the dry hot air. It was like she was back in Afghanistan.

She scrambled to her feet and lifted her gun, "I got your six. How many Joes in the building?"

"Counting us, two." Emmerson nodded, "Everyone evac'd. Air strike inbounds. Thirty klicks."

This wasn't a dream though. This was all _too_ familiar.

"Let's move out then."

She placed her left hand on Emerson's back, and they proceeded through the building towards the stairs.

"You okay?"

"Yes sir. Blast only blew me off my feet." She replied.

This wasn't just a dream, it was a memory.

Emmerson stopped, slowly raised his weapon, and whispered, "One hostile."

Juliet drew her attention forward, but caught a glimpse of a man raising a weapon of his own, "Contact at eight!"

Emmerson ducked with Juliet, and a barrage of bullets flew overhead. Suddenly, the world began to fade again, to the slightly more stagnant blue world of water she was floating in. The gunfire slowly muffled, and what she saw as bullets turned into a big sword headed straight at her face.

She snapped back into her virtual reality and dodged the sword, managing to catch the grip as it passed under her arm, and she rode it all the way down into the dark.

"Ebbershon?" she softly blubbered.

"Juliet? Are you okay?" a clearly identifiable Markus answered.

"Mashhhhk…"

"Oh! Mask! One second!" Markus chillingly revirtualized her mask.

"Contact at eight…" She reminisced, "We both made it."

"There's… No, you're in the clear. No contacts." Ulrich assured.

"Juliet, are you okay?" Markus repeated.

"Affirmative." She let go of the sword as the red tower came into her view, and the sword disappeared into smoke.

She just floated there, too weak to make a single stroke. That is, until the Skid came up under her.

"Grab on." William looked out at her from the window.

"Who… Are you the good one?"

"Juliet, it's us!" Yumi called out, "That's the good one!"

She clung onto the front window of the Skid, and William brought it down to the entrance of the tower.

"Can you make it into the tower?" Markus concerned.

"I think so. We got a Joe counting on me!" She shook herself, and pained herself to the entrance, "What's the code?"

"M-A-T-R-I-K-S, naturally."

She rose to the top of the tower, and deactivated it.

* * *

"Phew, that was rough." Markus relaxed, "Now, a bit of bad news, our power was drained. We can't launch a return to the past."

"Uhh, yeah, that _is_ bad news." Jeremie irked, "We used our power to break through XANA's firewall to Matriks. We can't launch a return to the past _either_."

"And we didn't even use the backup, this _really _isn't good!" Markus tensed right back up, "Cooke! I gotta go to the school!"

"Negative! I mean, no!" Juliet flustered, "I'll go! You're all banged up, that'll only raise more questions!"

"…Yeah, good thinking."

"Plus, I need a reason as to why I'm so late for work."

"Alright, I'm launching a materialization. Which, luckily, I _can_ do!" Markus relieved.

Moments later, the Scanner doors closed and opened, releasing a very exhausted female government agent.

"You aren't XANA, are you?" Markus looked down at Juliet, who had collapsed.

"I certainly hope not. I don't feel like I am." She shook her head, "I don't even feel like _me_."

"I don't know what the Scyphozoa did to you, but please take it easy!"

"Where can I find Cooke?"

"Follow the media trucks. They're probably crawling all over the building." Markus answered, "I can't wait to see what conspiracy theorists are going to make up."

She lifted herself up, and carefully stepped out of the Scanner, "Oof… Legs, they kinda work."

"Well, you're gonna have to put on a convincing show out there."

She made her way to the seat behind the computer, and pulled back her hair into a ponytail, "If there's one thing I know how to do, it's put on a show."

"…How would you know how to put on a show? You've never even hinted at that before. Nor did I ask?"

"It… Felt right to say."

Markus chuckled, "You just wanted to sound awesome with a one-liner, didn't you."

She shrugged, "…Kinda."

"Cooke would be proud. Get outta here." Markus pushed. She left willingly, with a soft wave.

"By the way," Jeremie added, "We also destroyed the MantiSkid…"

"But of course. One problem after another…" Markus sighed, and went straight back to work.

* * *

Juliet arrived at WSU, at the same time an ambulance backed in. An officer stopped her from going inside.

"This area has been quarantined, we can't let anyone inside." He stopped.

She pulled out her badge, "FBI. You better suit me up then. This is a matter of national security."

"Right this way." The officer pointed at a tent.

"I would also like a copy of the report sent to our D.C. office."

"Can do." He tipped his hat.

She began walking over, when a gurney busted out of the building with two suited medics on both sides. She quickly ran over and peeked in, and saw Cooke with a breathing mask over his face.

"Who is this man?" she played.

"Who are you?" one of the medics asked, removing their helmet.

She whipped her badge back out, "Juliet Michaelson, FBI. This man may have answers regarding the incident that happened here today."

"Well, agent. If you're willing to take a ride, we'll tell you what we know. Because I doubt Christina here will be talking."

"…Excuse me?"

"We aren't making fun of him, that's the name on his ID." The other medic reached into their bag and handed her his wallet.

She opened it, "...Well, Christina Cooke. Either unfortunate name or a fake ID."

The medics loaded up Cooke, and Juliet joined him inside.

"Now, what exactly happened?" She asked the medic sitting in the back.

"Mr. Cooke here is heavily bruised, dislocated leg, broken left foot, and in the early stages of alveolar edema."

"In English?"

"The ammonia gas almost destroyed his esophagus causing the contents of the stomach to evacuate into the lungs."

"That's pretty gruesome."

"Luckily for him, he was smart enough to seal the doorframe with tape, minimizing the damage. How he managed to do that is beyond me."

"Will he recover?"

"Oh, absolutely. His foot will take the most time to heal, if anything. He's currently in comatose though, so who knows how long he'll be out."

"This is good to hear."

"The thing is, what we've told you isn't even the strangest stuff. He has a massive bruise under his right arm, and a Lichtenburg figure going over his left shoulder down his back."

"What's that?"

The medic pulled back Cooke's shirt and showed a yellow-y tree figure going over his skin.

"Tattoo?"

"We wish that were the case. That's a Lichtenburg, you can only get those by being struck by lightning or extremely high-voltage equipment. But there wasn't anything in that building powerful enough that could do this. This kid was struck by lightning."

"…How did he get struck by lightning and how did he end up in the closet?"

The medic shrugged, "That's your job to figure it out, I'm afraid."

"Thanks for your information."

* * *

"Yep, sounds like XANA messed him up pretty badly." Markus sulked into the headset.

"He's resting in a hospital bed now, he'll supposedly make a full recovery." Juliet whispered into her phone, "We have a lot of damage control to do."

"I know, I'm just hoping nobody saw XANA's archer. I'm pretty sure he travelled through the power lines, but if so much as one picture was taken, we have a big problem."

"And ammonia gas."

"I've been watching the news, only one man was affected, but they won't release details until his family is notified."

"So, Cooke's family?"

"Correct."

Juliet looked back at Cooke, still dead asleep, "…I have a question."

"Oh, you and be both."

"Why is his name Christina? Is he… Um…"

"No, no. He just doesn't like talking about it. To make a long story short, he has a twin sister, and the nurses wrote the wrong names on the birth certificates. When the parents found out, it was too late to legally change their names, and they weren't old enough to change it themselves."

"Why doesn't he now?"

"He wants to, but right now, his student loan paperwork, school paperwork, grants, and all sort of other legal stuff are registered as Christina Cooke. It's too much of a hassle to change everything right now, so he's waiting until he graduates. Hence why he prefers being called Cooke."

"Alright…" she paused rather quickly, "I see some black vans pulling up, I'm going to assume they're here to question Cooke."

"I bid you two good luck."

"Yeah, _they'll_ need it." Juliet hung up.

Markus sighed, and slowly punched another number into the keyboard. The phone rang, and someone picked up.

"Hello?! Who is this?!" An almost irate woman demanded.

"Ma, it's me."

"Oh, Mark! Sugar! Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine, it's just been a rough day so far."

"I heard! I had workers install your local news stations in our house!"

"In… California?"

"We'd do anything to make sure you're safe! If you want to come back home, we'll send a jet for you-"

"No, no jets. I'm fine. I'm safe. I like it here." Markus breathed, "Unfortunately, you know my buddy?"

"Cookie?"

"Ye… Yeah, Cookie. Him." Markus bit his lip, "He was the one that was injured in the… Gas… Leak?"

"Oh my heavens! We'll send him some flowers and prayers! Do you want us to come out there?"

"Ah, no? He'll like flowers. I'll text you where to send them-"

"We'll fly out in a couple days, Papa's got some business in New York to take care of anyway."

"…Speaking of texting, I need a new phone."

"That explains why I don't recognize this number. But anytime! Just walk into the store and charge it on the account!"

"…And new glasses…"

His mother huffed, almost to a chuckle, "Now how did you break your glasses _and_ your phone?"

"It… Well, you see, I tripped and… Hit the pavement. Breaking my glasses. Then while I was… Searching… For the path back to my dorm for my spares, I was calling Cooke, er, Cookie, and I fell in a fountain!"

"It sounds like you two are having some terrible, _terrible_ luck!"

"That's… Yeah. Pretty bad luck. Hopefully things are turning up soon!" Markus faked.

"We'll see you soon. Take good care of Cookie!" she hung up.

"Ugh…" He didn't want them to come. Not in a place hot with XANA attacks.

* * *

"Agent Juliet." Cassinov panned, as he entered the room Cooke was admitted, "Why am I not surprised to see you here?"

"Because I'm proactive, sir." Juliet smugly smiled.

"You are over three hours late for work-"

"With all due respect sir, I heard the call over the radio and immediately went to the scene. I didn't have time to check in."

"And this whole time you've been standing over Cooke, who coincidentally was the only one injured _and_ is sponsored by the government, you never thought to call it in?"

"I was under the impression you did get the call. After all, you're here."

"But I'm still baffled how the only person injured was one of the two people we monitor."

Juliet raised her hands, "Don't look at me, I'm just as baffled as you are, sir."

"Yet for some reason, I don't believe you." Cassinov picked up Cooke's medical report, "Kid got beaten, gassed, and struck by _lightning_? There are _way_ too many problems here that make it hard for me to believe you _aren't_ involved."

"I don't know what to tell you, sir."

Cassinov threw the report on Cooke's bed, and walked out, "I'll have DC Police sent me their report."

"Already requested it, sir."

He turned back and glared at her, "But of course."

He continued out, and stepped into the elevator.

Juliet turned to Cooke, "…We very nearly lost today. Good job hanging in there."


End file.
